We're on the verge of the most important season of the year for retailers.  Merchants count on the revenue they earn during the holidays to carry them through the rest of the year.  But last year, holiday retail sales were down nearly three percent and as the recession rages on, no one really knows what to expect this year.

Unlike most retailers across the nation, last Christmas Poppy's Popcorn saw one of its best years ever.

"Popcorn at Christmas time is probably about 40 percent of our whole business.  Just between November and December, it's pretty big.  It's huge," Nathan Bertsch, owner of Poppy's Popcorn, said.

But come May, Bertsch noticed business drop off and so far this year, orders from corporations who send those big tins full of popcorn out as holiday gifts aren't coming in the way they used to.

“It's a discretionary item, spending isn't what it normally is. It looks like we'll be down on the big corporate end, but walk-ins have been great,” Bertsch said.

Bertsch is trying to entice more customers with new flavors and containers. And he's hoping an update to his Web site may make up for the business he expects to lose this year.

“That's sort of the way business is switching anyway. You not only have your customers locally, but then you're all over the whole country,” Bertsch said. 

Bertsch may be on to something. Online holiday sales are expected to rise eight percent this year. In other cost saving moves, Bertsch hasn't replaced two employees who've left and says in the popcorn business, bad weather is a good sign.

“Bad weather, people can't go out, so they think, 'Well, I'll have movie night,'" Bertsch said. 

And nothing goes better with movie night than a little popcorn.

Bertsch has noticed that employers haven't given up buying gifts for their employees altogether; they're just not spending as much.