“Seven months after Christmas shoppers spent a record amount of money in Island County shops and businesses, 2001 is shaping up to be, at worst, a flat year for retail sales.Following the 2000 sales boom year, the present sales climate may seem a bit quiet for local business owners. With the exception of some tourism-dependent shops and inns, the island business community has not felt the effects of a predicted but largely unrealized economic slowdown.Based on the most accurate economic indicator – county and city sales tax revenues – 2001 retail sales are not keeping pace with those in 2000. Figures from the Island County Treasurer’s Office show sales lagging in four of the first six months of the year. In the city of Langley, tax collections were down in six of the first seven months of the year. The city has collected about $6,000 less this year than last on approximately $1.59 million in total sales.But the number are still on par with those from 1999 and are better than all previous years. Jim Palmer, a business consultant and owner of the Freeland Radio Shack, said a year of cooling at the end of a decade of hot economic times might be what Island County needs.An off year is good for the economy, he said.Palmer notes that this is an easy thing for him to say. Sales at his store have increased by 344 percent over the past three years and have even crept up a bit this year. The numbers surprised him.I expected it to be slower than it has been, he said.Other South Whidbey merchants back Palmer’s perception. Brandon Huff, store manager at Lumbermen’s Building Center in Clinton, said his sales have also gone up in 2001. He said the increases are across the board, from lumber sales to contractors to retail sales. Where the extra sales are coming from, he said, is anybody’s guess.Maybe we’re picking up market share, he said.One place that does seem to be feeling the slowdown is Langley. Sharon Klug, owner of Northstar Trading Company, said not many people coming to Langley this summer are pulling the wallets out of their back pockets or their purses.It’s quiet, no doubt about it, she said. They’re looking but not buying.The number of visitors to the island may have dipped a bit. Washington State Ferries reported this week that for the quarter April through June, total riders on the Mukilteo-Clinton route declined 2.4 percent from the prior year.At Langley’s Moonraker Books, proprietor Josh Hauser said she’s not have a great summer, but it’s not a bad one either. Business is a little soft, she said.Books, she said, are one of the few things both locals and tourists buy even when money is tight.Visitors are still coming to Langley to shop. Pat Gillese, a Yakima resident, said she, her husband, and some friends were visiting Langley for the second time in two summers last week. Last summer, they drove into town in early evening, no long after most shops had closed. This time, they were doing a shop-by-shop tour of the downtown area.Last year we were here to shop, but we were here too late, she said.Gillese and her companions went on to patronize local businesses into the next day. After going out to pizza, they stayed overnight at a Greenbank guest cottage.Stephen Nogal, the innkeeper and chef at the Inn at Langley, said he wishes more people would stay on the island overnight. His inn has too many empty rooms during the week, he said, and many of the people who call for weeknight rooms are asking for discount’s he cannot give.We’re hurting, he said.Bed and breakfasts have also felt a bit of a slump. Joanne Lechner, co-owner of the Eagle’s Nest Bed and Breakfast and the vice president of the South Whidbey Bed and Breakfast Association, said the Nisqually earthquake and this spring’s dot-com stock crash kept a portion of the spring overnight business away from South Whidbey. She said visits to South Whidbey bed and breakfast websites were down 40 to 50 percent in the spring. At her own business, Lechner said she is still filling up for August. Usually, she is turning away calls for overnight lodging by mid-July.It’s not one of the highest years, she said.One Langley business that does not rely heavily on tourism is still have a good year. Star Store owner Gene Felton said sales between the grocery and clothing business at his stare are up about one percent over 2000. That’s not much of an increase, but taking into account that last year was the store’s best ever, Felton said he’ll take it.My business is great, he said.With five months to go in the year, both Island County Treasurer Maxine Sauter and Langley Clerk-Treasurer Debbie Mahler say they built enough cushion into their budgets to make it through a slow sales year. “