Holidays bring cheer, visitor spending

January 14, 2011

Maggie Thompson

The new chief of Mammoth’s Chamber of Commerce is smiling, and when was the last time anyone saw that?

Maggie Thompson, general manager of NPG Cable, said the holiday spending spree by visitors to Mammoth exceeded all her expectations, and may signal a larger economic trend.

“It was one of the best years we’ve had in a long, long time,” she said.

“The businesses should be really pleased.”

There were glitches, of course. The copious blizzards during the holiday period caused power outages, clogged roadways and frayed nerves.

(Some of the collateral shrapnel affected NPG Cable, she added as an aside, particularly on Dec. 28, when lines went down. She said all things considered, cable TV did fine, mostly due to 24/7 work by the NPG crew.)

And yet, she said, noticeable trends in commerce emerged.

“People are spending some of that discretionary money now, which they weren’t for a couple of years because they didn’t know which direction they were going.

“I’m feeling a lot better about that than I did a year ago.”

She said she has noticed the trend in her own business.
“People are adding additional services, like premium channel packages,” she said.