Most Northwest stocks enjoyed a respite Wednesday from the pummeling they took recently as good news about Internet sales and declining fuel prices pumped up prices.

Amazon.com led a group of Northwest stocks in positive territory with a nearly 10 percent stock price gain.

Amazon stock rose $4.02 or 9.76 percent on news that sales on Monday, dubbed Cyber Monday by retail analysts, rose 15 percent overall.

Analysts expect that pace won't continue through the rest of the holiday shopping season, however.

SeaTac's Alaska Air Group was up 6.17 percent to $24.76 as fuel prices continued falling. Crude oil hit $46 a barrel Wednesday, more than $100 less a barrel than it brought in midsummer.

Tacoma's Trueblue Inc., a temporary labor firm, beat the Dow's increase of 2.05 percent Wednesday with a 5.63 percent jump to 47.50 a share.

Even Federal Way's Weyerhaeuser enjoyed a good day with an increase of nearly 5 percent to $36.19 at the close.

Microsoft beat the Dow with a 3.76 percent increase to $19.87, and Costco stock bumped up 2.63 percent to $51.42 a share.

Satellite Coffee Co., one of Tacoma's premier homegrown coffeehouses, soon may open a new location downtown.

Pat Brown, an owner of the shop at 817 Division Avenue – above Supernova Hair and Tattoo – confirmed a report Wednesday on Tacoma Urbanist about the plans.

"It is true, but I haven't spilled the beans about the plan – so to speak – yet because I need to talk with my business partners," Brown said Wednesday afternoon.

Satellite features only direct trade coffees and espressos, and is the only cafe between Portland and Seattle that serves and sells Stumptown coffee, a Portland-based outfit founded and run by Puyallup native Duane Sorenson.

I'll post more details here as I learn them.

UPDATE: The new shop will be in a shared space with a juice bar on Market Street next to the downtown YMCA, Brown says, and they hope to be open in the spring.

Patricia Lecy-Davis owns Embellish salon at 1121 Court D #A – that's the purple building next to the Y. She will be opening Smooth 'n' Juicey in the space with Satellite Coffee, Brown says.

I left a message with Lecy-Davis on Wednesday afternoon to get more details about the juice bar.

Brown says the decision to expand Satellite's footprint came after long conversations with Stumptown's Sorenson and his colleagues.

"Owning a coffee shop is a real grind until you have two or three of them," Brown says. "They don't make enough money after expenses, and (even with two shops) I'm still looking at working long hours."

But the Division Avenue shop is successful, Brown says, so it seems like a good idea to open another one.

Brown and Lecy-Davis decided to share the space after Lecy-Davis was in Satellite one day going over designs for her juice bar, and "the lightbulb went on for both of us," Brown said.

Though not by design, the new location continues Satellite's connection with salons.

"On Division we have the hair salon downstairs with the coffee shop up in the bird's nest above Supernova," he said. "This new one is the opposite, with the shop and juice bar downstairs and the hair salon upstairs."

So Tacomans, here's at least two places to get a 'do and a free-trade caffeine dose in one spot.

The economic slowdown is finally affecting traffic at Sea-Tac Airport, new figures show.

Passenger traffic at Sea-Tac Airport declined 1.72 percent over the same month last year, but the airport's traffic for the first 10 months of the year remains 1.2 million over the same period in 2007.

Expect more declines in coming months as airlines nationwide cut capacity in an effort to match falling demand.

But Sea-Tac is still faring far better than most airports, according to federal figures. Those figures show air traffic has dropped 14 percent nationwide this year.

That compares with the overall growth of 4.57 percent at Sea-Tac. Traffic there through October, according to the airport, was 27.45 million passengers compared with 26.28 million in the first 10 months of 2007.

Credit the slower decline in home prices here and the relative health of such major employers as Microsoft, Costco, Amazon and Boeing here.

For the next few days, as the holidays approach, we’ll be speaking to small retail stores in the South Sound region. If you’d like to nominate a retail business for this series, e-mail c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com.

Green Cottage Pets

Address: 3024 Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor; 612 Regents Blvd., Fircrest

On the phone: Tom Moodie, owner

Please give me a quick description of what your stores sell.

We're a holistic pet food store – we sell human-grade pet food. And, supplements, leashes, collars and accessories. Everything is chemical-free. USDA ingredients, no byproducts. You could eat anything in my store.

When did your holiday season start?

December's always a good month. We usually increase sales by 10 percent. We sell more toy and gift items, accessories, blankets, beds; the things you don't usually buy all year 'round. People buy presents for their dogs and cats.

How is it going so far?

Business has always done well. We can feel a little bit of the (economic) crunch, more in Fircrest than Gig Harbor. The disposable income is different in Gig Harbor than it is in the Fircrest area. It's a totally different clientele.

What are you hearing from your shoppers about their budgets?

Everybody is shopping a bit more. With gas prices down and the cost of goods up, people aren't hesitating to drive 5 miles out of their way to save $2 on an item. If the gas prices were higher I'm not sure that would be the case.

Are you having any sales?

We run a few sales. Christmas stockings for dogs and cats that if you fill it up we give you 10 percent off whatever you can fit in it.

What's the most popular item?

Food. Dehydrated to frozen to dry to wet, we do it all. We guarantee everything in our store. If we don't know something we look it up. We're really stringent about what we bring in. We research every item and the ingredients and offer a money-back guarantee.