Late last year, Spokane-based Merck Familys Old World Christmas designed a champagne bottle-shaped Christmas ornament with fin de siecleend of the centuryon the label and a glittery year 2000 emblazoned across the front.


Since then, the Christmas-goods designer and wholesaler has sold the decoration fast enough to make any business owner want to break out the bubbly in celebration.


I just wish they all sold like this, company President Tim Merck says as he walks among boxes of ornaments stacked ceiling high in an East Spokane warehouse. As you can see, not all of them do.


In fact, none of the 1,000-some ornaments designed by Old World Christmas ever has moved as quickly or in the volume in which the company has sold the year-2000 item. The company has distributed more than 120,000 of the items, and Merck says retailers typically charge $22.95 apiece for them, which would put the total retail value of that one ornaments sales at almost $2.8 million.


Old World Christmas is one of several Spokane businesses that has prospered this year by using the countdown to the new millennium as a way to pick up additional sales.


Along the main aisle of most any department store here are displays of millennium keepsakes. For instance, at its store downtown, Nordstrom Inc. is selling a candle that is to be lit on New Years Eve and will burn down throughout the night, uncovering surprise gifts along the way. Obviously, it would have to be tended. In the Spokane Valley, the Halpins Inc. pharmacy and general store is selling a millennium fortune teller, which is a crystal ball powered by two double-A batteries.


Common items bearing year 2000 insignias include fabrics, chocolates, picture frames, candle holders, and stuffed animals.


Playing off the computer woes expected to come with the new millennium, Spokane-based Halletts Chocolates has developed the Y2K Fix, a jar of chocolate tablets that it markets as the chocolate fix for the next millennium. The label gives humorous dosage information, making plays on words by metaphorically mixing computer and pharmaceutical terms, such as, Y2K computer crash: 4 tablets, and gigabyte enriched.


First introduced to retailers this past summer, the product continues to sell quickly among the confectioners wholesale customers and at its retail shops on Spokanes North Side and South Hill, Halletts Chocolates co-owner Jennifer English says.


Some businesses and organizations are preparing for the millennium observance in a different wayby taking precautions to guard against problemsand, as a result, Spokane-based security provider Argus Services Inc. is prospering.


James Schoenleber, president of Argus Services, says that to accommodate increased requests for security services, Argus has hired 100 additional employees for the start of the millennium.


The company typically beefs up its staff around the holidays, but this year it has hired nearly twice as many people as it has in previous years. It also has instituted a no-vacation policy for all employees for the last week of 1999 and the first week of 2000.


Financial institutions, distribution centers, retailers, and industrial plants are seeking stepped-up security.


It runs a broad gamut of concerns, Schoen-leber says. Not wanting to lose an asset is paramount in most of these peoples minds.


Even given the plethora of millennium merchandise available in stores here, Merck says that, based on the success of his companys year-2000 merchandise, he thinks many designers and manufacturers have failed to capitalize fully on the once-in-1,000-years event.


I think a lot of people have missed the boat, Merck says. A lot people have stitched 2000 to a teddy bear, but that doesnt work that well.


Preparation profits


Some businesses here are suited naturally to profit from Y2K fervor.


One is Total Survival.com Inc., a Spokane-based camping and emergency equipment retailer that sells goods via an Internet web site and recently opened a store on Spokanes North Side.


Total Survival.com Vice President Chuck Osterholm says business sales of survival equipment have escalated steadily over the past two years, as people have gathered goods gradually in preparation for potential power outages or other unforeseen catastrophes that some believe could be spurred by the start of the new millennium.


Lately, business has been brisk at Total Survival.com. Osterholm says, however, It hasnt been the panic or flurry that everybody thought it would be, but thats not to say that wont happen in the next few weeks.


A $175 survival kit that includes a stove, a lantern, and a space heater powerful enough to warm a 900-square-foot areaall fueled by butaneis one of the most popular items sold at Total Survival.com. Osterholm says the company receives a truckload of the survival kits each week, and it usually sells its entire inventory before weeks end.


The types of people who are buying survival gear in preparation for Y2K varies, he says, from people who are making good, common-sense decisions to people who come in and say God told them to get ready.


Retiring mementos


Back at Old World Christmas, the final shipment of champagne bottle decorations from the Spokane companys manufacturer arrived the Monday after Thanksgiving. All 6,000 ornaments were spoken for by mid-week, Merck says. He says the company now will retire the design.


The company designed another millennium ornamenta New Years baby figurine adorned with a 2000 sash. It, too, has sold out and has been retired.


Its not as strong of an ornament as the champagne bottle, but its been a phenomenal success, Merck says.