CHARLESTON — Traffic jams of people headed to the Holiday Lights at Shore Acres State Park have left Charleston merchants smiling this month. They’ve benefited with extra customers who stop in while traveling to and from the show.

“It’s just an increase of people dropping in we normally don’t see, and they’re in good moods,” said Stacie Burns, owner of Davey Jones Locker for five years. “It’s a nice thing for the community.”

The good weather the first two weekends since the lights display opened on Thanksgiving Day had increased her business.

As of Friday, about 18,000 people had taken the walking tour of the lights display at Shore Acres botanical gardens. The park has seen a 5 percent to 8 percent increase in the number of cars coming through this year, according to park Manager Preson Phillips. The lights display even made coastalliving.com’s top 10 holiday celebrations last month. The park usually gets between 40,000 to 60,000 visitors before the display closes.

Cathy Snook, a clerk at the Old General Store for more than three years, said business is a little slower during the winter than during the summer, but sales are strong.

“It seems to be going really well,” she said. “The economy’s not hurting it.”

Colleen Curto, a potter and part owner of Pottery By The Bay, said with her business closing at 5 p.m. she doesn’t notice a direct correlation between Shore Acres’ traffic and sales. But she hopes people might notice her store, brightly decorated for the holidays, and make plans to come back and shop.

“We try to decorate really cute so that you go by and go, ‘Oh!’” she said.                                                        

At first Toni Easley, store manager Kinnee’s Gifts & Shells for 20 years, said she thought there had been no increase in sales due to Shore Acres traffic — not until she yelled to the five or six customers in the store, “Are you going to Shore Acres?”

“Yes,” they all replied.

It doesn’t pay to stay open later, though, than the store’s 5:30 p.m. closing time.

“We’ve tried staying open later and it doesn’t make any difference,” Easley said.

Some store owners have kept their doors open later on Fridays and Saturdays, including Donna Kaiser, the owner of Charleytown gift shop, but not many people shop there after they leave Shore Acres. Still, she’s thankful for the customers who come in during the day.

“Every day I have a handful of people,” Kaiser said.

Every year, Carol Rodde, owner of High Tide Café, volunteers to help hang the lights at Shore Acres. She sees the results of that labor, as people stop in to eat before dusk on their way to see the lights.

“Beginning of November, business is slowing down at night, and the lights came on ... Boom!” Rodde said, smiling and gesturing with her hands.