RETAIL
The National Retail Federation
forecast that even in pandemic 2020,
holiday shopping
will rise between
3.5% and 4.1%
nationwide.
when the COVID-19 effect became significant.
In Port St. Lucie, from March through mid-September, 15 retail
businesses shut permanently compared with 11 in the same period
in 2019, said Elijah Wooten Jr., business navigator in the PSL
city manager’s office. The businesses did not report what caused
them to close.
BRING ON THE FOOT TRAFFIC
The shopkeepers all say they need increased foot traffic in their
downtown areas to get back to normal sales levels. They are not
out of the woods yet, each of them said. The upcoming holiday
shopping season will be an odd one, unless people feel more
comfortable by November and December in venturing out in
numbers, the shopkeepers said. The National Retail Federation
forecast that even in pandemic 2020, holiday shopping will rise
between 3.5% and 4.1% nationwide.
In Vero Beach, much of the downtown business district is filled
with professional offices but it does have about 12 to 14 retail
merchants, said Susan Gromis, executive director of Main Street
Vero Beach. By September, most of those merchants were not
close to matching year-ago sales levels.
“You can walk on the street and you see cars driving by and
not stopping,” Gromis said in mid-September. “This impact of the
virus is lasting a lot longer than we thought. When the federal
small business loans were offered in the spring, we all thought
this would be an eight-week thing.”
“I’ve been here since 11 in the morning,” Descutner said one
Friday in mid-August. “Two girlfriends came by to visit. That’s it so
far for today.” It was nearly closing time.
Not enough people are shopping downtown yet, she said. “I’ve
had a few great days, but they are few and far between.”
There was fresh talk in late September of the polarized Republican
and Democratic leaders in Congress getting together to
pass a second stimulus package of help for small businesses and
stimulus payments to individuals, increased unemployment benefits
and more. It was not clear by early October whether this will
happen before the Nov. 3 presidential election, after it, or at all.
O’Connell said the primary goal for small stores is simply to
hang on, to survive, until sales return.
“When are things going to return? We have no idea,” O’Connell
said. “We have no idea when we can have events again. I don’t
think any of us are expecting a booming recovery anytime soon ...
2021 will be a pivotal year.” v
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