Again and again, the phrase "Wall Street to Main Street" is used to describe the current economic trickle-down.

Whether the trickle is more a drip than a gush, however, depends on which business on which Main Street.

Broad Street in Southern Pines looks beautiful this spring, with sidewalk improvements, flowers in bloom and colorful window displays. Lunch customers have begun eating outside. Inevitably, conversation drifts to the economy.

Some retailers say they're making adjustments to ride out the slump.

Trish Cessna, owner of Deka's Doghouse Pantry, stops short of calling her business recession-proof.

"People pamper their pets, especially around here," she says. Her locally made hand-decorated dog biscuits in shapes like martini glasses and crme puffs (averaging $2 apiece) still sell, although some monthly totals have been down several hundred dollars.

Cessna has a strong customer base, which she encourages by the living-room arrangement of her store and a bulletin board covered with pictures of "customers." She talks dogs with their owners who drop in just for conversation.

"That's worth everything in the world," she says.

To stimulate sales, she added trendy holistic and primal raw dog food.

"People aren't traveling as much, so they have money to spend on their pets," she says by way of rationalization.

Overall, Greg Zywocinski, president of the Southern Pines Business Association, says some think business is good, others fair and others poor.

"When I walk down Broad Street, I feel a slump," he says. "But hopefully in three months, this will turn around. All in all, we're doing as well as we can for an area that depends on the tourist trade."

'Tough, Tough Time'

The Country Bookshop manager Bonnie Johnson is brutally frank.

"It's a tough, tough time for us," she says. "We did all right in December, but sales were significantly down in January and February. Books are a luxury, not like gas and food."

Management at the 58-year-old business is fighting back by conserving electricity, asking whether customers need bags, increasing sale sections, adding sidelines (higher-profit cards, reading glasses, other items), lowering inventory and cutting employee hours.

Regular customers receive a weekly e-mail "blast" that might include a 15-percent-off coupon. Outreach to the community through book clubs, in-store lectures and signings promotes visibility. More people are using libraries and used-book outlets, Johnson says, adding: "If a Barnes & Noble opened, it would kill us."

Claudia Miller, of Morgan Miller ladies' apparel, in business for 11 years, also reaches out electronically. A recent sign in front of her Broad Street store offered a chance to win merchandise valued at $150 in exchange for an e-mail address.

"People see the sign and walk in," Miller says. "I have to stay in front of my customers."

She uses aggressive e-mail and fliers -- with a personal touch. One promotion celebrated her daughter's 20th birthday with cake and 20 percent off one item.

Miller only recently began to feel effects of the downturn. She is responding by buying her high-style merchandise carefully, aiming for a slightly lower price point while concentrating on the shopping "experience." She uses a consulting firm for marketing ideas, has reduced her inventory and monitors expenses closely.

"I've been watching this for a year," Miller says. "My business is very vulnerable. I've made all the adaptations you read about. What's left is to get customers in the door."

'Down, but Not Horribly'

Carol Dowd's customers have been warning her "not to go all out" with floral arrangements this year. To comply, Dowd, of Botannicals in downtown Southern Pines, must create designs requiring fewer fresh flowers.

"Everybody is spending less," she says. "Our sales are down from last year -- but not horribly."

Dowd fears cutbacks will become the norm even after the economy improves. She echoes the stimulus credo: "We all have to spend a little more to keep everybody going."

Just in case, she has reduced advertising, staff hours and charity donations. But weddings are still strong and Mother's Day looms. "That should carry us through the quiet summer."

Sadly, Julie Pressley's Hot Water Urban Surf Boutique closed up shop. First came high fuel prices, then unseasonable weather.

"I've been struggling since the fall of 2007," Pressley says. "People quit shopping. They wanted discounts, but we have to pay full wholesale and sell for full retail to pay the rent, which is very expensive."

Pressley, who worked at the store six days a week for five years, will be left with debt. She has a business degree and has sent out resumes.

"I don't know what the job market is," she says. "I'll take whatever I can get." With construction starts down, her husband's excavating business has also slowed.

Yet sales at Lyne's Furniture Gallery, a high-end, high-visibility home decor store on a prominent corner in Southern Pines, are up 40 percent in a year, reports Manager Mary Taylor.

Taylor, with marketing experience at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chicago, set out to create a soothing, low-pressure atmosphere for browsing. She orders fresh flowers every week. She also arranges crossover marketing: A mannequin inside the store is dressed in clothes from Morgan Miller. A seamstress/alteration specialist rents space; coming and going, her customers are exposed to the carefully selected merchandise.

Taylor's direct marketing is very direct: She calls customers to tell them when interesting pieces arrive. But, in all fairness, Lyne's customer base is solid and reasonably affluent.

"We have a nucleus of people from Horse Country who come in regularly," she says. "When a customer really wants something, they usually buy it."

Taylor sends customers to local merchants for items she does not stock.

"In these times, we need to work together and promote each other," she says.

Coffee houses have long been forums for discussing everything. Yet Flynne Meares of Flynne's Coffee Bar on Broad Street says her numbers are down in what should be good months.

"We're watching the pennies," Meares says. "We're not in danger of going under, but there's been a noticeable decline." This prompted her to close on Friday and Saturday nights. Her staff is made up of family and volunteers serving a mixture of tourists and residents.

Guarded Mood in Pinehurst

A guarded mood prevails at two Pinehurst Village clothing businesses that cater to locals and tourists.

Gentlemen's Corner and Christopher Dalrymple have been in the same location for 30 years. Dalrymple knows his customers by their size. They are loyal. But, he says, "Not as many people are traveling," which means he sells fewer neon-bright ties, his signature item.

"People are more price-sensitive now," Dalrymple says. "Everybody talks about the economy, but they're still buying. I'm not getting overloaded with high-priced merchandise."

To stimulate sales, he has mailed a spring catalog produced by a supplier.

Around the corner at The Faded Rose Ladies Furnishings, proprietor Sherry Mortenson acknowledges that the past six months have been slow, as everywhere -- a condition she believes is exacerbated by the doom-and-gloom media.

"We're trying to continue on as normal," she says. "About 50 percent of our business is tourists, so when the hotel is down a bit, it affects us. I'm buying more cautiously, but our merchandise is seasonal. And if I don't buy, my business suffers."

A cold, rainy spring hasn't helped. However, Mortenson observes that shoppers are weary of worrying -- "so instead of buying three sweaters, they buy one." She never advertised much and has not cut back on staff hours.

Little things make a difference. Mortenson's animal advocacy draws the like-minded to her business, which also sells books and cards featuring pets. Gracie, the store cat, greets them.

'In This Together'

Surely pizza sells, no matter what.

"We're holding our own," says Nick Munoz, manager at How You Doin' in Southern Pines. Prices have gone up 25 cents on most items, but late-night business from bar patrons is steady.

"And the school kids keep coming for pizza," Munoz says. "They're spending more than mom and dad."

Vito Gironda, proprietor of Vito's in Southern Pines for nearly three decades, also blames the media for fear-mongering.

"Shut the TV off, stop listening to how bad things are, let people just live," he says, while admitting that rising product prices -- flour tripled, cheese and oil doubled -- have cut into his profits.

"We took a beating," Gironda says, "but we ate a lot of those increases" -- instead of passing them on to customers.

Recently, Vito's in Southern Pines has begun opening for lunch, but not to counteract the recession. Lunch is the baby of Gironda's son and nephew -- and business has been fair, Gironda says.

"We don't do many tourists," he says. "We deal with the local trade." He predicts a return to normalcy within the year.

Greg Zywocinski hopes the Southern Pines Springfest on April 25 will invigorate business for local shopkeepers who weathered the long, lean winter.

"Pinehurst and Southern Pines," Zywocinski says -- "we're all in this together."

Contact Deborah Salomon at debsalomon@hotmail.com.