After wild year, some small KC retailers say holiday surge may keep them alive in 2021
Holly Pollard compares herself to a first-time mother who gives birth to twins: Everyone around may pity her, but the mom doesn’t know any different.
“This is my first year so everything will seem easy after this,” said Pollard, who purchased the longtime Brookside Toy & Science shop just six months before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Kansas City.
Across the Kansas City area, many small retailers like Pollard say they are hanging on with hopes of finishing this wildly unpredictable year on a surprisingly strong note.
“I feel like the consumer of Kansas City has our back,” she said.
The little shops in Brookside are central to the neighborhood’s charm, but shoppers know now more than ever that those stores need their help. They only need to look around at the scores of treasured restaurants that have closed during the pandemic to see what’s at stake.
Like other business owners, Pollard got creative, launching a website and offering curbside pickup and delivery options.
“We figured out ways to get the toys to the kids as safely as possible,” she said. “We’re probably not going to break even this year but we aren’t going anywhere.“
The coronavirus has particularly ravaged small businesses: By the end of November, total small business revenue in the Kansas City metro area had dropped more than 28% compared to January, according to Opportunity Insights, which is tracking the economic recovery under the direction of researchers at Harvard University.
But when it comes to shopping, research from e-commerce platform Shopify shows that half seek out independently owned businesses to support entrepreneurship and find unique products, even as they increasingly migrate to online shopping.
This holiday season, many small shops across the region say their business has held steady. Some have even seen record annual sales — a remarkable feat considering most closed their doors temporarily this spring.
“We expect it to be a very good season,” said Sally Helm, who owns Brits in downtown Lawrence.
Her shop has specialized in a variety of jams, teas and biscuits imported from Great Britain for 25 years. It can’t compete with online behemoths like Amazon, she said. But customer loyalty has never been higher.
“People at the counter say, ‘I want to shop here, I don’t want you guys to go away,’” she said.
Downtown Lawrence is quieter nowadays as bars and restaurants struggle through the cold winter months. But Helm said several retail stores actually are expanding with some recently moving into larger storefronts.
She didn’t know what to expect this summer when she began placing orders for the holiday season. So she took a gamble and ordered similar quantities of product as in year’s past. It was a wise decision as customers began shopping early and the store ran out of Christmas goodies earlier in the season.
One thing Helm thinks has helped: masks. Brits required them before local regulations mandated them. And she said that widespread adoption has made both customers and employees feel safer along Massachusetts Street.
“There’s no question when you go in somewhere that everybody’s going to be wearing masks,” she said. “I think that’s important.”
‘We’ve had to work five times as hard’
The banners that line many of the shops in downtown Lee’s Summit tout the merits of shopping locally, but acknowledge that things look a bit different this year.
Sure, there’s all the signage about social distancing and mask wearing. But the area remains quintessentially Christmasy.
Green garland and red bows wrap around old-timey street lights. In the tiny park on Main Street, huge violet, gold and blue bulbs weigh down the branches of the Mayor’s Christmas tree.
On a recent day, customers meandered in and out of shops, paging through Christian devotional books, holding up sweaters and blouses and sniffing candles through their masks.
Even though the shops aren’t packed, customers are spending, said Melissa Wuennenburg, who owns Very Violet Boutique and Ivy & Sparrow.
She said traffic is down but sales are up significantly, with customers purchasing multiple items at a time. And she hears from locals who are spending their dollars more intentionally than ever before in hopes of keeping their favorite stores open.
“I wrapped 27 gifts yesterday for customers,” she said recently. “That was just between like four people.”
November and December are always crucial months, carrying her businesses through the slower spring months. The two neighboring stores specialize in giftable items like candles, home decor and ornaments. They sell products made by 22 local artists, which has helped keep inventory in stock as national supply chains have been stretched.
The stores offered curbside pickup, private shopping appointments and Wuennenburg started a social media video series. She shows customers how to decorate a holiday dining table, how to create a charcuterie board or string their own orange garland. The point of those, she said, isn’t to sell anything but to stay connected to customers.
“We’ve had to work five times as hard as we normally would,” she said, “but it’s going to save our business in the long run.”
The two stores didn’t just survive 2020. They thrived.
“If you would have asked me this question in May, I would probably say we weren’t going to survive,” Wuennenburg said. “But looking at the numbers now, we are probably up 20 percent over last year at this time.”
Shoppers flock to different gifts
Much of 2020 has been spent at home.
So it’s no surprise that businesses that deal in home furnishings, decorations and even remodeling have been booming as people look to change up the spaces where they work, learn and play.
That also changed holiday buying patterns: Kitchen gadgets, candles and home decor were more popular than ever, retailers say.
And of course, there were the masks.
A survey from the NPD Group found that nearly a third of all consumers planned to buy masks as gifts this year. Also surging in popularity were experience-based gifts, including food subscriptions and streaming services.
For the first time ever, free shipping was the biggest influence on where consumers would shop this season, NPD says. And the increase in online shopping means shoppers spent less time in physical stores, limiting the occurrence of impulse purchases.
At Nell Hill’s in Briarcliff, furniture sales have been strong most of the year. Now, people are buying throw pillows and blankets for gifting. Charcuterie boards and coffee table books are selling quickly, as are locally made candles from Pickwick & Co.
“People are looking for items that can warm up people’s homes,” said marketing manager Karlyn Kubin.
Each year, the store transforms into a holiday wonderland. While they’ve had to ax special events, Kubin said Nell Hill’s was still seeing reliable traffic. It didn’t see as many out-of-town shoppers as in year’s past. Kubin said many locals who generally travel for the holidays were buying up Christmas decorations this season.
“People here in Kansas City have made it clear they’re going to be home for the holiday season and they want to make it special,” she said.
The pandemic has decimated dine-in restaurant sales across the region. That hit Andre’s Confiserie Suisse doubly hard: not only have customers avoided its Overland Park tea rooms during the pandemic, but it has lost much of the traffic from diners who make a retail purchase on the way out.
But the family-owned business has seen online orders surge, up nearly 500% so far this December, compared to the same period a year ago, said René Bollier, executive chef and president of Andre’s.
The company sells its chocolates and candies in 32 Whole Foods Markets in seven states, so its profile is rising outside of the metro. But many Kansas City customers who are staying at home have shown a willingness to pay delivery fees to get Swiss chocolates shipped directly to their doors.
“We’re extremely fortunate,” Bollier said. “We have amazing, loyal customers in Kansas City.”
At Pryde’s Kitchen and Necessities in Westport, shoppers are increasingly looking for the basics like knives, saucepans and cutting boards, said owner Louise Meyers. She said the popularity of the Great British Baking Show has also fueled interest in home baking supplies.
“I’m excited that people are cooking more,” she said. “If there’s an upside to all of this, it’s that people are cooking more and people have become more self-reliant in their own kitchens.”
But even with renewed interest in cooking and baking, Meyers said traffic is down at the 52-year-old store during its most important period of the year. She said the four-and-a-half weeks leading up to Christmas usually generate 44% of Pryde’s annual sales.
National supply chains have been stretched, she said. For instance, it’s nearly impossible to find a pizza stone or a KitchenAid stand mixer around town.
Her store is still stocked with endless options of baking sheets, spatulas, pepper grinders and dishes. But she said she isn’t receiving full orders from suppliers, who have been stretched thin.
Meyers knows that customers care about the vitality of the business. They’ve baked bread and cookies, one even brought in some home-brewed beer. But Meyers worries that the pandemic may forever change shopping patterns as consumers migrate to online shopping
“Just give your small, local retailers a shot,” she said. “Honor their presence in your community because they won’t be there if everybody buys everything on Amazon.”
Arts and antiques bouncing back
Katie Mabry van Dieren has been touting the merits of shopping locally for years. But now, she thinks people are finally listening.
Local artists were hit hard not just from store closures in the spring, but from the cancellation of most craft and art fairs this year. The Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair was one of the few exceptions. While its spring, summer and fall events were called off, Mabry van Dieren forged ahead with a holiday market.
Over several weekends, vendors set up on a lawn behind Union Station. Masks were required and the usually free event was ticketed to control the size of the crowd.
Even before the fair was over, Mabry van Dieren said artists were making up for big losses earlier this year. Plenty made the same, if not more, than they made at last year’s much larger event, she said.
“Kansas City is coming and they’re supporting them,” she said. “It’s saving these small businesses.”
Usually held inside Union Station, the outdoor version was so successful that Mabry van Dieren hopes it will live on beyond the pandemic and become a Kansas City tradition.
While art can be viewed as a luxury to consumers, it’s a livelihood for the makers of pottery, jewelry and clothing. And the Strawberry Swing events help highlight many of the creatives who haven’t yet made it big with their own stores.
To help keep them going, she’s also launched shoplocalkc.com, where she has curated dozens of locally based artists and creators free of charge.
After closing for two months, owners of Bella Patina in the West Bottoms wondered just how many people would show up at their usually packed First Friday events.
But they didn’t need to worry.
Sales were up slightly as they reopened the three-story antique store for the first weekend of June. And they’ve only gone up since with stuck-at-home consumers opting to spruce up their workplaces with antiques and handmade pieces. Bella Patina posted its best December ever in 2020 with sales up 23%.
On a Facebook post they said they are “truly humbled” and “immensely grateful” for the support.
Partner Nick Allen said he hopes Kansas Citians will continue to support local shops and restaurants over big box stores and Amazon this season.
“All those that make Kansas City special,” he said. “Every sale is important.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
