Local businesses approach holiday season with gratitude and innovation
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ESCANABA -- The holiday season is upon us. With the COVID-19 pandemic still influencing our daily behaviors, many are wondering how local businesses are faring as Christmas approaches. The answers to this question are in some ways expected, and in some ways surprising.
Lisa LaLonde, president of the Escanaba Downtown Partners in Business and owner of Lisa Ann Style At Its Best, said she pushed to make sure Black Friday on Tuesday went forward this season. "I had to become president of the organization to get it to happen," she laughs, adding the mom-and-pop businesses downtown are hurting, and she's convinced it was something they needed. The hours of the sale, typically from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., were extended this year to spread shoppers out in hopes of avoiding congestion. The extended hours, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., worked out well, and LaLonde said that the 24 businesses who participated this year seemed happy with the results.
LaLonde says she's doing about as much business in her own shop as she normally would, but the bars and restaurants are really struggling. "January, February and March will be the telling time, who survives and who doesn't," she said, predicting that if sales are slow during the holidays when many downtown businesses make the bulk of their revenue, they may not have enough to get through the first three slow months of the new year.
"We have a vibrant downtown. We have a lot of stores, and there's a lot of things here that people don't even realize, and they really should come down, go through the stores first. See what we have before you go somewhere else. We might have the same item you were going to order," LaLonde said, urging the community to shop locally.
Sayklly's store owner Jim Kirby said trying to get product is the biggest challenge for his two stores. He says the factories are short on people because of COVID-19, and that's effecting availability of product for the stores.
Kirby said Sayklly's did very well with Black Friday on Tuesday this year. Sales were comparable to last year, and the extended hours were helpful in spreading people out. He added, however, that while the downtown store is busy this holiday season, it's not busy enough to make up for having to shut down their store on North Lincoln Road.
The Christmas season kicks off with the start of hunting season, and the length of the holiday season makes the holidays important to the bottom line. This is all the more true since both Sayklly's stores missed Easter and Mother's Day this year -- two of their big holidays -- to mandatory shutdowns due to COVID-19. After reopening the store on North Lincoln Road needed to close again, at first due to lack of employees, then for lack of product. Kirby says his biggest challenge isn't lack of customers, but lack of product. Kirby is trying to get the closed store open again as soon as possible.
"Thanks for customers that are supporting all the local businesses in Escanaba and thanks for being understanding," Kirby said gratefully of his customers' patience through the delays in getting product and having their orders filled.
True Value Hardware owner Kelly O'Connell said it's going as good as can be considering the pandemic, adding that they've been busy considering they've had no snow and have a lot of snow equipment. "A lot of people are shopping local and we really appreciate that. We really appreciate the community for all the support they've been giving small businesses," O'Connell said.
In general, O'Connell said, people are still coming in, adding "Black Tuesday was a very good day. It's always one of the better days that kick off the holiday season, and it was very good again." He said not as many people are reluctant to go into stores as they were in the spring, but if people call up and ask to have curbside service it's not a problem.
Customer Randy Evosevich of Iron Mountain said while he does some holiday shopping online, he shops downtown when he visits Escanaba to pick up stocking stuffers in the local stores. Shopper Don Bougie of Escanaba was in True Value looking for saw blades. He said his wife is the holiday shopper in the family, but that she is doing more shopping online these days.
O'Connell doubts that competing with online sales is much of an issue for his store. Like Sayklly's, getting product from manufacturers has been his biggest obstacle, a problem he assumes online businesses also have to contend with. He said while getting winter supplies has not been difficult, small appliances are very hard to get, as are cleaning supplies.
Peggy O'Connell with Positively said what she noticed this year is "people want things that take up less space and have more meaning," adding she's been getting a lot of orders for custom names and locations to be added to her products. While traffic in the store has been steady, O'Connell said that going into the new year, she will be moving the store to a smaller location, focusing more on custom items and building a much larger online presence to make it convenient for people to shop from home. She added the new location will be offering free local delivery.
Paula Hughes-Jonsson at The Morrison Shop changed her approach to selling when the pandemic hit, taking to Facebook. The Morrison Shop now runs specials through Facebook Live videos, allowing customers the option to order in the comments below the videos, call or come to the store. She has found the videos very successful. Asked how holiday sales this year compare to last year's season, Hughes-Jonsson says while they are "a smidge down," customers have been very supportive, and "All in all, I can't complain, considering the circumstances."