RETAIL
6
Largest Retail Categories
(in millions of dollars) 2019 2020 vs pvs yr vs pvs mo
February 305.4 316.9 3.8% — — —
March 384.8 351.4 -8.7% 10.9%
April 313.3 235.8 -24.7% -32.9%
May 304.2 275.5 -9.4% 16.8%
June 329.1 332.8 1.1% 20.8%
TCBusiness.com
downtown Fort Pierce, said she uses sanitizer
on dressing rooms, door handles,
and anywhere a customer touches at her
shop that sells a variety of stuff, mainly
apparel.
It’s important for customers to know
the place is clean in a virus-protecting
way, Jarvis said, particularly when some
larger stores closed off their dressing
rooms.
Many small retailers enforced maskwearing
even outside of local statutory
requirements because it makes customers
feel safer, said Bill Moore, president of
the Downtown Business Association of
Stuart, of which O’Connell is vice president.
Moore said merchants in that organization showed “business
starting to come back dramatically” when Martin County instituted
a mandatory mask ordinance in July.
“That made the customers feel safe,” Moore said. “More people
will venture out if everyone is wearing a mask, from what we’ve
seen.”
Moore owns Kilwin’s Chocolates & Ice Cream, also in downtown
Stuart.
“You can’t come into my store unless you have on a mask and
use the hand sanitizer,” said Patti Descutner, owner of Patti’s
Antiques in downtown Stuart. “I’m 75 years old. I’m not taking any
chances and I don’t want my customers taking chances. So many
of them are afraid to come out of their houses and when they do
go out, they want to be sure it’s safe.”
When a customer calls Descutner’s store, the outgoing voicemail
message ends, “Don’t forget to wear your masks!”
MASKS SAVED A FORT PIERCE SHOP
For Beryl Muise, owner of Notions & Potions Candles and More
in downtown Fort Pierce, masks saved her store.
When her shop had to shut down in mid-March, Muise was
feeling blue. St. Patrick’s Day had been in recent years one of her
best sales days because of a big downtown party centered around
Sailfish Brewing Company. It was canceled due to the virus.
“You’re counting on this big event and then there is no big
event. What do I do now,” Muise said.
For about a month she tried several ways to entice business,
including live events on Facebook such as sewing tutorials. Her
friends had been telling her that they did not like the masks they
were wearing for virus protection. She noticed some spa beds >>
Chic and Shore in
downtown Fort Pierce
expanded onto North
Second Street in a city
program called Parklet to
help shops adapt to the
pandemic’s limitations.
CITY OF FORT PIERCE
TREASURE COAST GROSS SALES
Source: Fla. Dept of Revenue
/TCBusiness.com
