BILLINGS - 'Tis the season for holiday shopping. And while millions head to their computers to shop by mouse, not everyone is going on-line.
"I always prefer to shop locally if I can," Penny Copps, a shopper, said.
"If I can't find it, then I go on-line. I just like to see it, touch it, feel it."
Curt Starr, a Gainan's employee, said Copps' opinion resembles that of many of the store's customers.
"Most of our shoppers are here in the store, in one of our three locations in town," Starr said.
"Our Web site is increasing every year by more than our in-store sale by 10%-to-15%, but most of them still are the traditional in-store shopper."
Even though most of Gainan's customers are doing their shopping in-store instead of on-line, that is not the case for one Billings business.
Jim Markel, co-owner of Red Oxx, said because of the store's Web site, business is booming.
"In '96 we launched our first e-commerce site, and through the years it's grown and become our primary channel," Markel said.
Orders on the Red Oxx Web site are up significantly from last year's holiday season.
"This Monday when we came in to check the order queue, we had a tremendous amount of orders from all over the U.S.," Markel said.
"So far it's over 300% growth over this day last year."