I’m not sure what might be an appropriate way to commemorate closing our store due to the pandemic, but the 5th anniversary of that sad day is coming up soon.  What a tough time it was for independent retailers –  and almost every other business.  Back in March, 2020 the majority of us thought that COVID would be over in a couple of months. And we certainly would not have anticipated that many shopkeepers would still be struggling five years later to regain our pre-pandemic sales levels.

We closed our shop on March 25, and reopened it to just 5 customers at a time on July 1. By then it looked like things might be back to normal by the fall – but the sign above about wearing masks through May was actually posted in 2022. Even today, we have staff who are masked whenever they are at work, as well as shoppers who are still being cautious. Perhaps it’s just as well we couldn’t foresee that five years ago!

A lot has changed since 2020, and of course not all of it can be blamed on the pandemic. But Amazon’s grip on American buying habits, which had already been growing steadily, was strengthened exponentially by the need to stay home.  According to statista.com, Amazon’s revenue was $280 billion worldwide in 2019. In 2024, it had risen to $637 billion. That is a staggering increase of 225%.

Another trend that was influenced by the pandemic was the decline in visits to stores by sales reps. This is largely due to the increase in wholesale purchases being made online, either using the robust websites now offered by some vendors and sales agencies or via the hugely successful B2B platform Faire. More than 100,000 brands now sell on Faire globally. It’s hard to say whether these online options would have gained as much traction had store buyers (and sales reps) not started to avoid travel and trade shows due to COVID.

The shortage of employees that has made it difficult to maintain extensive open hours had its start in the pre-pandemic economic movement for higher wages, as well as significant changes in population demographics. But the desirability of working from home – at first due to the dangers of exposure to COVID – undeniably had an impact on the recovery of the retail work force.

These are all factors that independent shopkeepers have little control over, so we should not feel that we’re at fault if we haven’t had the robust recovery from the pandemic that we’d hoped for. However on this emotional anniversary, I do want to acknowledge with gratitude the government programs that helped my business continue to pay our employees in 2020. I also want to thank our customers for doing curbside pickup, waiting in line out in the cold to be allowed into the store, and making a point to shop local. Without them, we would not have gotten through these challenging years.

Happy Retailing,
Carol “Orange” Schroeder