Before the pandemic, recreational shopping in local boutiques offered a chance to chat with business owners and enjoy the retail ambiance they created. Those simple pleasures became impossible when retailers closed their doors for public safety in accordance with Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home orders.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused record declines in retail sales that experts have described as catastrophic. Behind the closed doors of Clark County shops, however, resourceful owners of business deemed nonessential are finding new ways to sell their wares.
Alisa Tetrault opened Most Everything Vintage nearly 10 years ago, selling vintage clothing and accessories. She has focused on Instagram sales for the past two years, so when the pandemic hit, Most Everything Vintage already had relatively robust online sales.
“Going into this now, if we didn’t have this virtual, big-world picture, I don’t know how we’d do it,” Tetrault said.
Even so, clothes are only part of what’s keeping Tetrault and one employee busy.
After posting an image of a mask sewn from vintage fabric, Tetrault said she “opened up a Pandora’s Box like you would not believe of people who wanted masks.”
As of early this week, she’d sold about 500 masks at $15 each, and will sew another 100 masks by the week’s end. She’s made matching masks for couples, masks that coordinate with ties, even bride and groom masks.
“Ninety percent of our sales have been from masks since we shut down, and that’s what’s kept us going,” Tetrault said.
She estimates her business is doing about 60 percent of normal sales. Not bad, she said, for a store that’s closed to the public.
She expects mask sales to continue at a brisk pace, especially since they’re becoming the new normal.
“It’s been kind of fun making lemonade out of lemons,” she said. “I have a sewing machine. I have elastic. I have scraps. Let’s do it!”
Another retailer that’s making lemonade is Not Too Shabby, a fixture of Vancouver’s retail scene for the past two decades. The owner, Reshelle Douglas, closed her physical store in late March. Within days, she’d launched an e-commerce site integrated with her existing social media, where she posts photos of new products and videos of herself.
“I knew that I had to do live videos so people could say, ‘Hey, there’s Shabby Shelly. She’s doing OK. She’s hustling. I’m going to support her.'”
Douglas is taking custom orders from local callers and personally delivers purchases to customers’ doorsteps.
“I’m loving it. I think it’s fun,” she said, adding that she intends to continue deliveries after she opens again.
“It’s totally going to change my business,” she said. “I think it’s going to add an extra service.”
Douglas attributes her staying power to the strong personal relationships she’s built with customers.
“People are really going out of their way so support us,”she said. “I just feel lucky.”
Camas Antiques weathered the Great Recession. Owner JoAnn Taylor is determined to outlast the pandemic, too.
Like Not Too Shabby, Taylor is making the most of her loyal customer base. She’s used Facebook for years to let customers see what’s new in the store, but now it’s her primary way to sell.
She posts dozens of new photographs every day or two, from mirrors to cutlery to puzzles to help with quarantine boredom. When customers see something they want, they pay over the phone, then come to the store to pick up their treasures. Taylor herself loads the items up (with the help of the buyer, if it’s a heavy piece of furniture).
The response has been encouraging, Taylor said.
“It was better than what we expected, which makes us feel like this is something that we’ll do even after we reopen,” said Taylor.
Taylor provides personalized shopping for customers seeking particular items — purchases sometimes prompted by the pandemic, like a new desk for working from home.
“We can text or email them pictures of what they’re looking for in the store,” said Taylor, who also offers home delivery for orders of $40 or more.
Still, Facebook can’t replace walk-in customers or spontaneous purchases. For the first time since Camas Antiques opened 16 years ago, Taylor has had to lay off all her employees.
Nevertheless, Taylor is undaunted. She maintains a sense of normalcy by regularly refreshing her storefront display.
“People can drive by and see the new window,” she said, “just to give a new view.”
