Jefferson
area retailers woke up Monday morning, June 21, to the sobering news
that Juneteenth sales did not meet expectations. It was hoped that the
holiday would provide a much-needed boost to Jefferson's struggling
economy, and many local retailers had heavily stocked their shelves with
Juneteenth merchandise hoping to cash in on the celebration. The Greene
County Chamber of Commerce announced that sales of Juneteenth
merchandise totaled $0.This figure matches the lowest total ever since 1992, the year the holiday was invented. At Ben Franklin, tables full of Juneteenth flags were thrown out, while rolls of Juneteenth wrapping paper were gathering dust in huge bins. They even reported that the much-hyped holiday CD, A Bryan Adams' Juneteenth, had not sold a single copy.
"I don't understand how we could have called this one wrong", stated one dejected store manager. "I guess it is just another episode in a long string of bad luck to have struck this community."
Rick Bland, 06-30-2010