NNSL (JAN 03/97) - Local retailers are reporting less than awesome sales over the Christmas season.

Unlike the media reports from southern Canada, Yellowknife merchants said many people hung on to their money more than in previous years.

"We'll be down a little," said Dennis Nikiforuk of Damoli's Card & Gift. "Our sales ended off fine, it just didn't have a good build up."

That was similar to what Doug Witty at Force One saw over the Christmas season.

"We're not breaking any records, but we're holding our own, which is probably as good as it gets right now," he said. "It was about the same as last year. Nothing to get excited about."

At Northern Images, manager Lisa Seagrave said she saw the reverse shopping trend.

"For us, we started off quickly and slowed before Christmas," she said. "Things were pretty much on par with last year."

But Jan Lavertu, Canadian Tire's general manager, said business was up, despite the slow start.

"This year was excellent," he said. "We had an increase over last year. But we started out slow. I guess everyone in Yellowknife waits until the last minute."

Regardless of what kind of sales season the businesses had, all merchants said they were concerned about the uncertainty of government workers and Donny Days -- forced days off without pay for territorial government employees.

"I was concerned about Christmas with the layoffs," said Seagrave. "They're having an effect on the economy."

Witty agreed. "If we hadn't had (the uncertainty) we would have seen some good growth," he said.

"These were my concerns, too, at the beginning of December," Lavertu added. "But when push came to shove they decided to spend."

"It's a tough industry to figure out."

As for this year, the business people were uncertain themselves what is ahead, especially with construction on the diamond mine planned to reach full capacity later in 1997.

"There'll be 1,000 people working there so hopefully we'll see some spinoffs in six to 10 months," Witty said.

"Who knows what kind of impact the diamonds will have on the economy?" Seagrave said. "Hopefully it will compensate somewhat for the layoffs."