As years go, 2020 has been tumultuous, and that was before the November presidential election threw another wrench in the works. While President-Elect Joe Biden began forming a Covid-19 task force and preparing to move staff into the White House, President Donald Trump contested the election results in a series of mostly unsuccessful court cases. Meanwhile, late fall brought a spike in the coronavirus — a million new cases in just a month, leading even optimistic retailers to fear for their holiday sales.
Tense times
By mid-November, election tensions had mostly subsided, but store owners were still cautious.
“We’ll have a small uptick of overall happiness, but people are still trapped in their homes, and they don’t care about jewelry,” said Ken Stein, owner of Bensons Jewelers in Washington, DC. He said he’d boarded up his store after the election to protect it from potential unrest, because he’d been looted on June 1. “They got away with $90,000 of inventory, but they mostly took crap that I wasn’t going to sell anyway.”
For most of the summer, he lived off the insurance payout, aided by deferred rent and business interruption insurance. “Otherwise, I would have had zero, because we were still closed post-Covid-19.”
In Madison, Wisconsin, John Hayes, owner of Goodman’s Jewelers, said most downtown merchants were also boarded up weeks after the election in case of looting.
“We were closed for two months and reopened the day after Memorial Day,” he said. “We were only open five days when the peaceful protests in response to George Floyd turned not-peaceful.” The subsequent looting heavily damaged Hayes’s store. “We were out of business for another two months. They did over $100,000 in damage, though they didn’t even touch our watches. I can’t give those things away.”
Other store owners were more concerned about Covid-19 shutdowns than election protests.
“The election results will probably not have a significant effect on our holiday sales,” said Eric Wagner, co-owner of Showcase Jewelers, which has two stores in Kansas. “I would suppose that we won’t go into lockdown as long as President Trump is still at the helm.”
Wagner worried, though, that a Biden presidency would force stores “into lockdown, and probably destroy a good part of the economy for next year. But through Christmas, we will probably be fine, because President Trump said that he would not lock us down again, and at Christmas he [will] still be president.”
Slow traffic
Hayes said a sharp jump in late fall coronavirus cases had damaged his foot traffic. “The number of tickets is down substantially, although the dollar amount is up per ticket, and the closing ratio has gone up,” he added. “At least people who walk in are serious.”
Washington was also slow, according to Stein. “Being downtown, it’s so quiet,” he said. “All the customers are home. I’ve heard that suburban stores are doing better, and some stores that are not in the heart of the city are having the best year ever.”
However, he said people were still scared about Covid-19. “I don’t think we’re going to be well enough to do inauguration. Maybe they’ll do something on July 4th.”
Even Wagner was planning for a subdued holiday season, forgoing some of his usual promotions. Instead, he said, he will add online shopping to his websites, and spread holiday events throughout the season so his stores don’t become overcrowded.
“We’re hoping for a decent Christmas,” he commented. “But we’re in an older community, so store traffic has been light. The virus is keeping them in.”
Ultimately upbeat
The year has taught Stein to roll with the punches. “I’ve learned patience,” he said. “This, too, will soon end, and people will be happier with Biden in the White House. But as for holiday planning, I bought virtually nothing.”
And as rough as the year has been, Hayes was upbeat. “Ultimately, the election results will be positive,” he said. “People feel like there’s impending change, and things will improve, and they have more confidence, and there’s pent-up demand for spending. So ultimately it will be okay. It won’t be a record-breaking year, but last year was even with the year before, which was a success. If we can get close to that, I’ll be happy.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2020. To subscribe click here.