Despite being closed for multiple months earlier in this year, downtown St. John's clothing and jewelry retailer Posie Row was able to get by, pivoting to online sales and offering delivery and pick-up services.
Although the store came out of this COVID-19 pandemic closure in OK shape upon reopening to the public in June, the year overall has been a down one. Thus, the next few weeks leading up to Christmas will be huge for the small business.
"The importance of the Christmas season to Posie Row — and I'm sure to all other retailers — cannot be overstated," said Jane Manuel, Posie Row's manager. "It's absolutely crucial to our survival as a business. We rely on Christmas for a significant portion of our (yearly revenue).
“Along with summer, it's obviously the biggest time, but it outpaces any other time of the year by a lot. That's magnified this year, the importance of that, because while we did do OK during the pandemic closure, we still have some catching up to do to be able to call it a good year."
"The importance of the Christmas season to Posie Row — and I'm sure to all other retailers — cannot be overstated. It's absolutely crucial to our survival as a business." — Jane Manuel
Challenges
Indeed, it has not been a great year for most small businesses, with the pandemic hurting foot traffic and public health measures changing how they operate on a day-to-day basis. Bill Watters co-owns Northern Watters Knitwear, a business with stores in Charlottetown and Halifax that also supplies other shops through its wholesale operation. He estimates sales for the year are down 75 per cent due to the pandemic.
"It stopped all tourism, and we're a tourism-related store in both provinces," he said. "We're just relying on local people now."
Watters does not expect sales to change much through Christmas. Northern Watters Knitwear only attended one Christmas craft show in 2020, whereas most years it would sell goods at four. The others were cancelled for the year due to the pandemic.
"We lost three-quarters of our Christmas festival sales in that regard right there," he said, adding a wholesale show in Toronto was also cancelled and he's unsure of what's happening with another scheduled for February in Halifax.
Buying local
When it comes to buying local for Christmas gifts, Atlantic Canada may be in a better position than the rest of the country, judging from the results of a recent survey. The Retail Council of Canada’s (RCC) annual Holiday Shopping Survey — conducted by polling and market research firm Leger — found shoppers in the region are more likely to browse at local stores (54 per cent compared to 39 per cent nationally). They're also more inclined to shop local in order to avoid shipping delays that may arise with online orders (59 per cent compared to 47 per cent nationally).
Jim Cormier, RCC's Atlantic director, credits the region's ability to successfully manage the coronavirus for making people more comfortable with shopping at local stores. He said supporting these businesses in the lead-up to the holidays will go a long way towards keeping people in your community employed.
"It's promising news," he said. "Going into the holiday season, it's always a crucial time in the retail sector in any normal year — this year even more so, given the fact the retail sector, especially in certain segments of the sector, it's been extremely challenging this year."
Furthermore, the survey found 62 per cent of Atlantic Canadians intend to spend about the same amount on gifts as they did last year, compared to 50 per cent nationally. Cormier said this won't be feasible for all people, given the pandemic has resulted in so many job losses.
Eating trends
Restaurants and dining establishments also look to the holiday season as an important one for business. Hatfield Farm in Hammonds Plains, N.S., has multiple streams of revenue tied to its animals and event space. It regularly hosts weddings, birthday parties and corporate gatherings, including Christmas office parties.
While outdoor spaces served the farm well during the pandemic, owner Brian Hatfield acknowledged the fact his business lost a lot of revenue this year. Over 60 per cent of its scheduled weddings for the year were wiped out.
"We still only can take limited amounts of people — it's not like the way it was in 2019," he said, adding the business has lowered its overall expectations. "We're planning on (experiencing) two bad years to get through all of this."
Hatfield is optimistic the next few weeks will help the farm, though he anticipates Hatfield Farm will only do about half the business it typically does this time of year.
"People can social distance at our business and at our lodge," he said. "We have a lot of old customers that have been very loyal to us and the local people, they've been really helpful."
The Leger survey found 64 per cent of Atlantic Canadians will dedicate the same amount of money to dining out that they did last year.
Nationally, that figure was 45 per cent.
"I think you could make a safe assumption it was because here in Atlantic Canada, people have a little bit more of a feeling of security that we can go out and we can dine, or we can shop in stores ... and you can do so safely," Cormier said. "The COVID numbers here have not been increasing like they have been in other parts of the country."
Shopping early
In St. John's, Manuel is feeling good so far about the Christmas shopping season. Through Posie Row and Co, the business' Duckworth Street location also rents space to about a half dozen arts and crafts vendors. All but one of those vendors returned when the building reopened to the public in June.
"People are shopping early," she said. "They seem happy to be out and about, and we're approaching the Christmas season with a lot of optimism. We feel like it's going to help us this year make up for the losses of the earlier part of the year."
That message of shopping early is one RCC is trying to get out there as part of a public campaign. Cormier noted waiting late could leave shoppers struggling to get inside stores with limited capacity due to public health and safety measures.
For now, Watters is keeping a close eye on expenses. He said all businesses trying to make a go of it during the pandemic should be mindful of that.
"That's the best thing I can tell anybody — watch your bottom line," he said. "If you don't and it starts to sink, you're going to find it's going to drop all of a sudden and all the creditors are going to be on your doorstep."
Cormier knows there are a lot of retailers at risk of closing due to the pandemic.
"Many retailers, they've already lost so much over the course of the year that Black Friday, these holiday shopping season sales, even if they get a big run on sales, it's not as if they're thinking it's going to put them into the black for this year," he said. "But it might be the difference of them being able to continue to keep their doors open in 2021."
Andrew Robinson is a business reporter in St. John's.
