The advice Maine retailers have for shoppers as the holiday shopping season approaches is: plan your shopping, start early, be patient and learn to get comfortable outdoors.
A panel of retailers at a Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce webinar Wednesday said shoppers should prepare for a different kind of retail season, including changing shopping traditions and starting to shop as early as possible. Earlier this week, the Portland City Council agreed to allow outdoor shopping and dining to continue until Jan. 4.
“In the old days, we wanted to get as many people in the store at one time as we could, and that’s not the case now,” said John Reny, president of Renys department stores, a member of the KV chamber panel. He said there’s a big concern at the chain’s 17 stores.
“We want to spread them out more. When it gets closer to Christmas and we start getting crowds, are we going to start lining people up outside again?”
Other panelists were Curtis Picard, CEO of the Retail Association of Maine, and Elizabeth Hebert, manager of the Augusta Day’s Jewelry store. The panel was the second of the chamber’s “Community Conversations about COVID-19” series and was moderated by chamber CEO Katie Doherty.
On top of physical distancing limits in stores, the panel discussed the fact returns have to be held 24 hours before they can be put back out for shoppers, and supply chain slowdowns.
“We need to spread the season out,” Picard said. “Shop now, don’t wait for November. He said the more spread-out the season is, the fewer problems there will be.”Â
But he also stressed shopping local, instead of from national online sources. Both Renys and Day’s are Maine family-owned businesses.
“Not all your needs going to be met by shopping online,” Picard said. “It’s critically important to support Maine-based retail stores. They’ve been for you through this pandemic, and we want them to be there through the coming years.”
Winter outdoor options
Portland streets that have been closed since mid-summer for outdoor dining and shopping will reopen Nov. 1. But the city council Monday agreed to allow retailers and restaurants to operate outside on private property, and public parking lanes and sidewalks. Businesses must get a permit, but won’t have to pay a fee.Â
City Manager Jon Jennings said the city is committed to doing what it can to help businesses that have been hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. “But we also had to come up with a plan that ensured any wintertime outdoor business operations are conducted safely, and in accordance with all public health standards,” he said. The plans also have to allow for snow and ice removal by city crews.
Picard said he’s working with the state to increase the five people (including staff) per 1,000 square feet capacity limit. “If one family comes in, some stores are over the limit,” he said. In lieu of that, he asks consumers to put themselves in the place of the retailers, or other customers who may have to wait outside in the cold and snow. The outdoor capacity limit is 100.
Picard said retailers are encouraged to find ways to do business outside, which expands the amount of customers they can have. “But that’s very weather-dependent and not every retailer is able to do it.
“My advice to consumers is to try to make some new traditions, be as conscious as possible,” he said.
Prepared for the worst
Both Reny and Hebert said they’re hiring for the shopping season, and are even having trouble filling positions.
They also said that their stores have upped online options and made other changes to adhere to guidelines and help shoppers, and they’re prepared if there’s a coronavirus surge and there’s another shutdown.
“It’s totally different than when we shut down in March,” Reny said. “We didn’t know, we had no idea, I think now we have a real good handle on things and how do it safely.”
Hebert said that jewelry stores tend to have smaller crowds, but Day’s is also looking for ways to keep crowding down. She said that aside from shopping early, and spreading out shopping times, “have an idea what you’re looking for, shop the website first.”
The Day’s website has a “see it in the store” option, where people can pick out something online to look at more closely in the store, and she said that people should take advantage of it.
Picard said the possibility of another shutdown “is a question that keeps me up at nights.”
He said the fact schools are open, but there hasn’t been a big virus surge, is encouraging. “Maine is doing things the right way as much as possible. It’s not easy, but we have to stay the course.”
If there’s a large resurgence, retail will continue serve customers “as best we can,” he said. Stores, with eight months of experience, “have the ability to be creative,” and a shutdown might be more of a hybrid, rather than a full shutdown.
“The upside is we’ve all learned a lot through this process,” Picard said.