Covid: How local retailers sprinted when the foot traffic stopped

Year of sweatpants: Retailers face coronavirus

Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews

Covid-19 was already on track to uproot Lisa Vinson’s life before the pandemic hit the radar for most small business owners in Northwest Arkansas.

Vinson, 36, began feeling ill at the end of February. The chest pressure began in March. She was short of breath and could hardly walk from her bed to the bathroom, she said.

“I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest,” said Vinson, who owns the retail shop Remedy Road on the downtown square in Benton-ville with her husband, Brad.

Vinson said she continues to face major complications from coronavirus and has developed myocarditis — inflammation of the heart muscle. On top of an immediate and serious health threat, she and her husband aren’t sure how much longer they’ll be able to keep Remedy Road open.

They are not alone. Retailers across Northwest Arkansas have been forced to relearn how to run their businesses in order to keep paying for inventory and rent, even as they simultaneously grapple with newfound physical and emotional demands.

Nearly a quarter — or 23% — of Arkansas small businesses operating at the beginning of 2020 had shut their doors by Dec. 30, according to data collected by Opportunity Insights, which is tracking business recovery across the U.S. Revenue for small businesses was down 22% at the end of 2020.

Retailers face a unique set of challenges: Many shop owners have to purchase their inventory up front and are reliant on foot traffic for sales. They have to find a safe way to handle returns and item try-ons.

“It’s like they have to be employee-heavy just to keep the places clean and to keep products out, but then the traffic just isn’t there,” said Mary Beth Brooks, director of the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, which offers free consulting and has helped advise more than 600 local businesses during the pandemic.

Retailers in Northwest Arkansas are experimenting with new business strategies and testing novel ways to offer their products. Collaboration, faithful employees and customers, federal aid, sheer creativity and willpower have helped keep racks and shelves stocked and deliveries on front porches.

The Pivot

Megan D. Mayfield and Melanie D. Watson had big plans for 2020.

The two sisters run a boutique in Springdale, MPRINT, which seeks to clothe women of all races and sizes in the region.

The grand opening of their brick and mortar store was slated for March. They had sectioned out a media room for their photographer and models, and plans were underway to launch a You-Tube channel highlighting women-owned businesses in Northwest Arkansas.

“We were ready to go,” Watson, 29, said.

Their plans were paused. The opening was canceled, and they were left in a week-long holding period, deciding how best to move forward.

Mayfield, 33, recalled telling her sister: “We’re going to have to learn how to pivot.”

Business owners across Northwest Arkansas experienced similar moments of realization.

Trisha Logan, 42, owner of the Fayetteville stationery and invitation store Shindig Paperie, restricted entry to the story for bridal appointments only. Toni Patton, who operates Blue Moon Benton-ville with her daughter, Michaela, immediately started photographing items and writing descriptions to put online. Lisa Jones of Benton-ville’s Elysian Boutique takes videos of herself trying on clothes and publishes them to the shop’s Instagram and Facebook accounts.

Pivoting hasn’t been easy for small businesses, many of which didn’t have the infrastructure or employees to suddenly build out a massive e-commerce operation or delivery and pickup system.

Some companies didn’t even have an online presence prior to March.

“They don’t have time to build a website and manage it and make sure that they have the domain,” said Edwin Ortiz, who is piloting an e-commerce site called Rejoicy, which makes it easier for customers to shop at local businesses during the pandemic.

Many shops can’t offer the open spaces large corporations inhabit — a newfound customer preference for shopping, according to Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.

There’s a perception that bigger spaces are safer, because there’s more distance between shoppers, Jebaraj said. “Whether or not that’s actually medically accurate is beside the point — people are still worrying about it.”

On top of this, many vendors have struggled to ship orders on time.

Brooks said she’s been amazed to see how small businesses across industries, despite continuous roadblocks, have managed to stay afloat.

“They have gotten down to skeleton crews and figured it out,” she said.

Local business owners have labored to find new ways to put their product into a customer’s hands, or keep their stores open in a way where shoppers feel safe.

Mayfield and Watson open their physical shop twice a month for customers to try items on in the store. Returns aren’t put back on sale for 72 hours, and they are offering an option where shoppers can pay for items over several weeks if they prefer.

Logan, who runs Hillfolk, a textile studio and shop in Bentonville, in addition to her Fayetteville stationery store, started selling dying, embroidery and knitting DIY kits in lieu of in-store classes.

Ortiz said businesses on his platform have collaborated: A shop will offer curbside pickup outside a restaurant, so they don’t have to keep their doors open — customers will purchase coffee while they’re picking it up.

Social media has been a tool of choice, allowing business owners to showcase new items and update customers on hours and policies.

These strategies are paying off in some cases.

Business has never been better for MPrint, according to Mayfield and Watson. The sisters are preparing to hire four staff members in the fall and are designing a bigger space in downtown Spring-dale.

For other shop owners, it’s been difficult to make ends meet. Federal aid, such as the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program loans or disaster assistance, have helped keep their doors open and their staff members employed.

“Businesses are just trying to survive,” said Brooks, who added much of her work with store owners in 2020 has focused on securing the finances needed to stay open.

Circumstances have been fragile at times. Potential exposure to coronavirus, in one instance, threatened to force Toni Patton, 52, and Michaela, 25, to close for two weeks during the busiest time of the year, because they are the only ones on staff.

Vinson, who is on leave from her full-time pharmaceutical sales position, hasn’t been able to work in Remedy Road for about 10 months.

“I have two co-managers that really just took over when I got sick,” Vinson said. “I mean — I couldn’t do anything, especially those few months.”

Loss

There are two “for rent” posters in a storefront window on South Main Street in Bentonville — right under the black sign that reads “Elysian Boutique.”

Jones, 39, who closed the store in November, said she tries to avoid driving downtown. The sign is a painful reminder of an eight-year dream she abruptly lost.

Although she’s still running Elysian from her home, Jones has been trying to work through the feeling of failure she’s been carrying since closing the brick and mortar store. There’s a book of notes her customers wrote her in the two weeks before she shut Elysian’s doors. She hasn’t been able to open it.

“Having to let go of your staff and close down — that takes a toll on someone,” she said.

Vinson, of Remedy Road, said she has often felt anxious over the last year. Will she have the money to pay rent for her store? Is her heart going to stop?

Now feeling the best she has since February, Vinson has gotten more comfortable accepting help and saying no. Toni and Michaela Patton just went to Dallas to meet with vendors and pick out new items for their inventory. Mayfield and Watson are working with a design architect to plan their new space. Logan has stopped working late into the evenings, and she’s finally had time to focus on Hillfolk’s online store. Jones can be seen running deliveries in her car, two children in tow.

None of them are entirely sure what the next few months will hold, but they’re preparing themselves to face it head-on.

They hope their customers show up.

Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews
Photos taken by Jessica Mathews

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