An Uncertain Christmas

Local businesses struggle to adapt amid a COVID-19 surge during the holiday season.

By Patrick Sullivan | Dec. 5, 2020

Like small businesses everywhere, shop owners in downtown Petoskey want to see just as many customers this year as they do any other year. They’d just prefer if they didn’t all come at once.

“If they could come in shifts that would be so wonderful,” said Becky Goodman, downtown director for the City of Petoskey. “That’s what’s hard for the retailers — they love crowds, and now they have to monitor that, and it’s tricky. I have faith that this will be a good season.”

That’s why Petoskey’s downtown district, like that of Traverse City and other small towns, has been busy coming up with strategies to lure holiday shoppers while at the same time discouraging crowds in an attempt to keep people safe. As small businesses deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and a stressed-out workforce, it’s more important than ever to convince consumers to spend holiday dollars locally rather than at big online companies.

EVERYBODY COME, JUST NOT AT ONCE
Petoskey’s annual open house, Santa parade, and the ladies shopping night have all been canceled this year, Goodman said.

But for local businesses, the stress wrought by the impact of the novel coronavirus is more complicated than just worry about losing customers to big online stores this holiday season. Now, 10 months into the pandemic, social distancing, and constant mask-wearing are tiresome, she said.

“We had a great summer, and we had a really good, strong fall, but I think that the merchants are people who love to greet their customers, and they love talking to their customers,” Goodman said. “It’s getting a little wearing.”

Still, Goodman said, the city is doing what it can to get people to come downtown and shop, whether in person or via the internet.

“We’re doing what we can to get people to come down safely,” she said.

They’ve set up late shopping hours for Thursday nights and created a contest in which visitors to Petoskey’s downtown can download QR codes to enter a drawing. There was a “secret tree lighting” event on YouTube, and the city’s website includes a holiday catalog to help people shop downtown online.

“We’ve done this for six or seven years now, but I think it’s more important than ever to get this out this year,” Goodman said.

The city also has quietly established a “social district,” meaning that it is legal to walk around outside within the downtown boundaries with an alcoholic drink.

One establishment in Petoskey already had a license to sell to-go drinks as of late November, and Goodman said that two to four others will soon be able to serve to-go drinks, too.

“When everyone has their permit, I think you’re going to see a lot of activity with it,” she said. “It’s great to be able to walk around and look in the windows.”

In line with recommended health protocols, Goodman said Petoskey officials don’t want to encourage crowds to congregate, so they have not erected outdoor tents or warming houses. People will be motivated to keep moving in order to keep warm while they imbibe.

“Every [downtown] sidewalk is in the [social] district, and it is clearly marked, so you can walk around and enjoy your drink and enjoy yourself,” Goodman said. “I just think that the overall shopping experience in general, people want that, and you just can’t beat what we are offering in downtown Petoskey.”

The local businesses that are most at risk amid the pandemic are the restaurants because, after a summer of lowered guest capacity, the most recent state orders forced them to cease all dine-in service. Goodman said that since this is a time of year when people typically eat out and spend money at restaurants, she hopes residents and visitors should make a point to do the same — only with carry out.

“If we don’t support [our local restaurants] now,” she said, “they may not be here when we’re ready to go back to them.”

“THINGS HAVE TO GET BETTER”
Officials in Traverse City want to strike the same balance: getting as many people downtown as possible but spreading them out over time, rather than drawing big crowds during a single day, weekend, or evening.

Therefore, the popular December shopping staples like Men’s Night and Ladies Night have been canceled this year.

“We’re doing a lot in our office to make sure people are still coming downtown and feel safe in doing so,” said Nick Viox, downtown experience coordinator for Traverse City’s Downtown Development Authority.

He said he’s not worried about local businesses’ ability to survive the pandemic amid the holiday season; rather, he said, he hopes people just realize how important it is to support local businesses right now.

“I think what I would like to stress is that we should be supporting our local businesses when we eat out, when we are buying things for the holidays,” Viox said. “We are going to these great places that have really been the backbone of our downtown and the heartbeat for our community for a long time.” 

There are still some events scheduled for downtown that are designed to bring in people at a more staggered pace. For instance, a strolling light parade is scheduled for the evening of Dec. 12. Nonprofit agencies will set up light displays throughout the downtown region that people can explore.

There will also be a weekend of holiday storefront window displays.

“We’re getting creative with it, and we’re making sure that people aren’t gathering at certain times,” he said. “We’re really hoping that our community pulls through on this one.”

Many downtown businesses are helping the effort by offering unique online sales through their websites, Viox said.

There’s also a fundraiser on the DDA’s website featuring 20 gift baskets that will be available for bids. The money raised will go to a fund to help downtown businesses through the winter.

Viox said he is more concerned about the months following Christmas than he is about the holiday season itself.

“We believe that the first quarter of 2021 may be a difficult time,” he said. “Usually that’s a time of year when a lot of our businesses see the biggest dip, so they are already expecting that.”

Shanny Brooke, owner of Higher Art, an art gallery that recently moved from a space on Traverse City’s Union Street to a more visible and larger location on Front Street, said she is worried about what will happen to downtown businesses this winter.

With restaurants closed to dine-in business, she said the downtown streets sometimes feel deserted.

“We’re all connected, and that one big component right now is completely shut down, so it hurts everyone,” she said.

Brooke said she held several events in her gallery over the summer that brought in customers, but she wouldn’t risk holding an event now due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the region. On the other hand, since she moved, she believes her store can safely accommodate eight to 10 customers at a time rather than six, the safe limit at her old location. It’s just a matter of getting them in the store.

“I honestly don’t feel great about the next two months. I definitely think people are trying to go out of their way to shop local and be supportive of their local businesses,” she said. “But there are people who are my regulars who I have not seen since February. I one hundred percent completely understand. They just aren’t going anywhere.”

Brooke runs an unusual business for downtown in that she’s able to operate her gallery alone, so she doesn’t have to pay employees. Still, she said she anticipates dipping into savings to get through this winter.

“It’s scary, and when I took this leap of faith and moved into this new space, I did it with my eyes wide open, knowing it was a crazy time to do it,” Brooke said. “At same time, things have to get better.”

HIGHER COSTS, FEWER CUSTOMERS
Julie Hearne, owner of Millie and Pepper creperie and general store in Traverse City, has insight to the struggles of both retail and food service business amid the pandemic.

She is worried about both sides of her business. She is afraid that all of the Christmas inventory she purchased will have to be discounted after the holiday, and she said that she reluctantly signed up for Door Dash to help boost crepe sales, even though that app takes a significant cut of the revenue.

One of the challenges Hearne said she faces is that there just hasn’t been much foot traffic on Union Street lately. Earlier, she said she thought it would be a great holiday season because it seemed like so many new people had moved to Traverse City. Then the pandemic came raging back, and people started to stay away.

“I’ve had so many people come in and say, ‘I just moved from Chicago,’ or ‘I just moved from New York,’ or, ‘I just moved from Florida, and we love it here and we're going to stay,’” she said. “But with the pandemic, no one’s going out. … I really don’t know how this holiday season is going to go. We might have a lot of things on sale after Christmas.”

Hearne, though, isn’t upset that she could no longer let customers eat crepes in her store because of the state’s emergency order. She said she supports the order.

“All of that said, I totally get the shutdown. I think it’s a must to be safe,” Hearne said. “I have a mother I don’t want to see get sick.”

She said she felt she had no choice but to sign up with an app like Door Dash, which, after an introductory 30 days, takes 30 percent of each order’s sales. She said she wouldn’t have done it but for the pandemic forcing so much of her business to be curbside. She has her own online ordering system, but she realized that she needed something more.

“The people that work for me can’t be that excited about it, because when you tip on the app, you’re not tipping the people that work here; you’re tipping the driver, who deserves a tip,” she said.

Kathy Hyland owns two businesses in Traverse City: Pets Naturally, a retail pet store on South Airport Road, and Bay View Flooring, a flooring installation company.

She said both of her businesses have been lucky, in a way, because she hasn’t been affected by the pandemic as much as some other business owners. Pet stores were deemed essential businesses at the beginning of the pandemic, so they were able to stay open. And her flooring business has been booming since people have been spending so much time at home and are undertaking renovation projects.

Hyland said that as a local business owner, she understands how important it is to support local businesses, especially now as the pandemic draws on.

“If people would want to continue to have local stores, we need to continue to support them,” she said. “That’s really important for the restaurants. People need to continue to get carryout and buy local or we won’t have these businesses.”

TIS THE SEASON FOR … FIGHTING BACK
In Petoskey, Jennifer Shorter has done all she could to make sure people feel comfortable to come into one of her three downtown gift shops this holiday season, Grandpa Shorter’s Gifts, the Katydid, and JW Shorter & Son Mercantile.

Shorter has seen to it that her businesses offer local shopping online and free local delivery. They offer curbside pickup for people who don’t want to go into stores.

She said she takes COVID precautions seriously and that most customers appreciate that, though she said she’s still getting used to limiting the number of customers allowed in the store at one time.

“I don’t enjoy having someone at the front door telling people that they can’t come in and that they have to wait, and to have to pay them to do that,” she said. “But we’ve made it work.”

Shorter said she hopes the pandemic isn’t too devastating for downtown Petoskey and other local businesses. She doesn’t want to see them go away.

“I’m worried about what businesses won’t be here a year from now or six months from now, and I’m making sure personally to support those businesses that I want to see make it,” Shorter said.

Heading into the winter season should be an extremely busy time for Don Marszalec, owner of Bahnhof Sport in Petoskey.

So far, things are going pretty well, especially given the uncertainties surrounding what it’s going to be like to go downhill skiing this winter. Will skiers stay home if they are forced to take warming breaks in their car rather than in front of a fire in the ski lodge? Marszalec isn’t sure.

“That’s to be determined, and it could go either way,” he said. “We’re hoping for the best. If anybody can figure this out and make sure it's enjoyable, it’s the Nubs Nobs and the Boynes.”

He expects that this season, he’ll sell more cross-country ski gear than usual, because that’s a sport people can do on their own or in small groups, and the activity itself keeps skiers warm.

“My solution is, buy more gear. But that’s not everybody’s solution,” Marszalec said. “It’s a one-year thing, and you have to fight your way through it.”