Some Kansas City businesses are unexpectedly booming during COVID-19. Here’s why
When COVID-19 hit the Kansas City area in March, Brad and Dawn Easley feared for their future.
Brad Easley, an electrician for 25 years, had just quit his job the previous August to open his own dream business, Rough & Rigid in Basehor. A solo artisan with a blowtorch, he used the rounded ends of giant steel propane tanks to handcraft fire pits the size of kettle drums, costing upwards of $550.
A massive stroke of luck had even come his way when a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs asked Easley to make one for quarterback Patrick Mahomes — which Easley did, gratis. Mahomes was so happy, he sent Easley a smiling, thumbs-up picture of himself in his Chiefs sandals next to the fire pit, giving Easley permission to use the photo in ads. That February, after the Super Bowl, Easley got 40 more orders at a home show, and the fledgling business was on its way.
Then, two weeks later, the coronavirus arrived in the Kansas City area.
“We were both panicked,” Easley said. “COVID hit. We thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re in trouble.’’’
It didn’t happen that way. Now:
“I’ve never had so much money in my bank account,” Easley said thispast week, his barn workshop stacked with fire pits to be shipped around the country.
The Mahomes magic was only a tiny part of the success.
With families sequestered in their houses, business related to home and hearth in the Kansas City area — painters, landscapers, carpenters, designers, stone and concrete workers and, in the Easleys’ case, fire pit makers — not only are finding themselves busy, but, in many cases, are having banner years.
At-home seclusion is allowing people to take money they were going to spend on vacations and going out and put it in their homes, said Kristopher Dabner, president and creative director of The Greensman landscaping, in its 26th year.
“Looking around their houses and looking around at their gardens, they’re thinking, ‘Man, if we’re going to be stuck at home, we may as well do something,’” Dabner said.
Thriving in a pandemic
That’s not what people expected this spring, when stores shuttered and stay-at-home orders were mandated. By April, 23 million Americans were filing for unemployment, the greatest economic disaster since the Great Depression.
Numbers from the national Bureau of Labor Statistics leave no doubt that the United States is still suffering economically.
About 11 million jobs have been regained since the worst of the pandemic in April, but 12 million people were still out of work as of the most recent numbers recorded in September. Unemployment sits at 7.9%, more than double the 3.5% before the virus struck. Travel, leisure and airline industries have been hit particularly hard with tens of thousands of layoffs and furloughs at companies that include Disney, United and American Airlines.
With some 2.3 million restaurant and bar workers still unemployed, the National Restaurant Association declared this month “that the restaurant industry’s return to pre-coronavirus employment levels will likely be measured in years and not months.”
Yet even in the worst of times, corners of the economy thrive.
“We’ve had a great year. We’re actually having our best year ever,” Dabner said. “We normally plan on 10 to 12% year over year (growth). This year we’re working on 20%.”
Dabner was concerned after the COVID-19 shutdown.
‘You never know what to expect,” he said. “After 9/11, we had clients call and cancel work for a couple of weeks afterward. Then, after the economy tanked in ’08, ’09, we managed, but it slowed down a little bit. I was kind of anxious thinking something like that might happen again.”
Instead, it was the opposite.
For Lance Putnam of Putnam Landscape, Maintenance, Design, people’s push to refresh their nests has brought novel demands: home bocce ball courts. He’s already done one.
‘I’ve had like five requests. I just don’t have the time to put them in right now,” Putnam said. His business, he said, has likely doubled over 2019, although because his crews are working overtime, and drawing overtime pay, his profits are more like 30% to 40% higher.
“Anyone who is in cube land,” meaning formerly working in an office cubicle, he said, “is working from home. They’re thinking, ‘We have to invite people over. We want the landscaping to look nice.’”
Pottery, patio lighting, fire pits have become big, he said.
‘I can’t keep up with demand’
Jose Pecina, owner of J.P. Painting, said demand has been “crazy.”
“We’re getting like 20, 30 calls a week,” Pecina said. “Used to be 10 to 15 a month. I can’t keep up with demand.”
If there have been any challenges, he said, it’s been in the rising costs of materials like lumber and drywall because of both increased demand and interruptions in supply lines caused by the pandemic.
Geri Higgins, owner of Portfolio Kitchen & Home, which specializes in custom kitchens and other spaces, said that because of current backlogs on refrigerators, ovens and other appliances, she now orders appliances soon after taking a job.
“Most cabinets take 12 weeks,” Higgins said. “As soon as the cabinets are ordered, we’re ordering appliances. That was never the case before.”
For some clients, she said, she has ordered two refrigerators, after the pandemic raised the specter of food shortages and the need for added storage.
Higgins’ business, she said, has not slowed down. “I think next spring is going to be crazy busy. This is a prolonged, life event that we have never experienced before. People are reassessing what is really important. Now they know how important their home is.”
Matt Lonesk, vice president of sales and operations at Sturgis Rock Solid Solutions, a natural stone supplier in Kansas City, Kansas, said their over-the-counter sales are also up 15% to 20% over 2019 as do-it-yourselfers put in walls and patios.
“The general consensus is that everybody in the home services industry is busy,” said Eric Regan, owner of Mission Painting and Home Improvements and a part of the area Angie’s List advisory board. “I hear it from our product reps. Everyone in this space is busier than they’ve ever been.”
His own business, he said, is up 35% over last year.
“Were we anticipating this? No, not at all,” Regan said. “We had no idea what to expect early on. We were battening down the hatches, looking at our lines of credit in case we needed it. All we needed it for was to pay our crews because we have so much going on.”
Marie Martinez, officer manager for Overland Concrete Construction Inc., said they are so so busy they are scheduling well into the spring.
“Typically at this time of year, we would be saying we probably can’t get to you this year. But we were saying that in August,” she said.
Part of that has been due to COVID-19 challenges. Shutdowns have made construction permits harder to procure. Illness among suppliers can slow work. Not anyone can drive a concrete truck. Replacing a sick driver takes time.
“We’ve had employees of our own that have had to quarantine,” she said. “That puts the kibosh on work.”
But there’s also just the overwhelming demand. “We’re super busy in that we have calls and calls and calls because everyone is at home,” Martinez said.
The stock prices of companies such as Best Buy, Lowe’s Companies and Home Depot Inc. show the trend. All have been trading at five-year highs. Home Depot is currently trading at 15% higher than its price in February before COVID-19 hit and 86% higher after stay-at-home mandates swept the country. Lowe’s is trading 37% higher than before COVID-19 and is 160% up on its March low. Best Buy is 32% higher than before COVID-19 hit and 130% higher than when it tanked in March.
On fire
Easley, who makes fire pits, said that it was precisely because people are staying home amid COVID-19 that his business took off.
“Come to find out, people weren’t going on vacations,” he said. “They weren’t doing anything, so they were putting their money into their backyards. The phone started ringing. Orders started coming on my internet site. Things just started clicking and we’ve been busy ever since.”
The success has allowed Easley to subcontract with two local welders who work on handles, pokers, grills and bases. The Easleys have three adult daughters, two of whom now work for the business, as does Dawn Easley, who also works full time in human resources for Price Chopper.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to do something like this, and it’s actually coming true,” Easley said. “I hope it stays this way … without the COVID.”
