With the holiday season close at hand, many small and local businesses have begun to question what the pandemic will do for those coming in to shop.
According to a study by the United States Census Bureau, over 71% of Colorado small businesses said the pandemic has had a moderate to large negative impact on their operations, with 27% of that total saying the impact has been large.
In Loveland, Black Friday and the holiday season have taken on different forms, with some businesses carrying on like usual and others looking to national sales days to bring in more customers.
Bart Probasco, owner of Probasco’s Christian Bookstore, said that Black Friday in the many years they have been open has not been a door-busting day, as many shoppers look to big box stores for bigger sales, stores that have extended their sales day to more of a sales week.
“It hasn’t been as much in recent years because it seems people have extended their black Fridays to the whole week or the whole month,” Probasco said. “We are kind of staying (with) what we normally do.”
Patty Brown, owner of Rooster Brown’s, said she is grateful that their store is able to remain open during this time. She added that her boutique is fairly small and does not hold as many people in the first place.
“We are just staying safely open and limiting the amount of people that would come in if we have to,” Brown said. “It is such a small store for a boutique.”
Other stores, however, are planning to enact sales or take part in national sales days. Rogan Magyar, owner of Downtown Sound, said that Black Friday also serves as Record Store Day — a day in which independent record stores “celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities,” according to the Record Store Day website. This event has taken place once in the spring and on Black Friday each year for the last 13 years.
Magyar said record stores will get exclusive releases for the event, and his store sees customers lined down the block to get in and shop.
“The two days have been … historically our two best days of the year,” Magyar said. “It is a really big deal in the record world.”
However, Magyar added that with the impact of the pandemic and regulations to keep people safe, he is not sure what it is going to look like this year.
But regardless of what Black Friday is going to turn out like, both stores and shoppers alike have said that shopping local this holiday season, particularly during the pandemic, is going to be of great importance.
Magyar said one of the challenges that local businesses face during this time of year and particularly on Black Friday is comparing to bigger stores that have a greater inventory and ability to slash down prices.
“That is just the reality of what small businesses are up against,” Magyar said.
Brown said while she understands that it is a scary time and why some people may not physically go out shopping for presents, she has and will continue to buy local to help those businesses around her.
“We wouldn’t make it without people locally shopping,” Brown said. “Shopping online doesn’t bring up the downtown revenue and pay our bills and pay the taxes for the city. It is just the right thing to do, I think.”
Probasco, like Brown, said he shops locally as much as possible because of the importance it has on the local economy and hopes that shoppers will see that as well.
“We hope that people will think about shopping local because it you don’t then your local shops go away,” Probasco said. “Especially in this time … people are struggling to even keep up with what a normal year would be.”
As the holiday season does get closer, some shoppers have already begun to do what they can to help the local economy with holiday shopping.
Derek Barmore and Karli Warrender, Johnstown residents shopping for records at Downtown Sound Wednesday, said they wanted to support local places and do their part to help out where they can.
“This feels more personal than just … Amazon (shopping),” Barmore said. “With what is going on right now … we have been trying to support as many restaurants and local places as possible because it is hard right now, people are scraping by and trying to make money.”
“I am going to spend money for the holidays but who is that money going to go towards?” Warrender said. “Sometimes it takes a little bit more effort and I don’t always have the time, but when I have it, I want to know who my money is (going to), not just going to already a billionaire Amazon.”
Magyar said, more than ever, this shopping season is going to have an incredible impact on local stores and whether or not they can survive.
“It is not at all an exaggeration to say shopping locally might make the difference of some of your favorite local places staying open or closing forever,” Magyar said. “A lot of us are really on the borderline here and pretty much (leaning) on a strong holiday season to help push us through until we start seeing turnaround from a vaccine. This really could be a make-or-break season.”
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November 27, 2020 at 05:04AM
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Loveland kicking off a “make-or-break” holiday shopping season - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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