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By: Sierra Pape
By: Sierra Pape
If you search up “2020” in the Urban Dictionary, a lot of negative connotations come up. Clearly 2020 brought devastation to families across the globe. However, the myriad of obstacles, including health crises and economic shutdowns, have sparked massive innovation. We witness innovations everyday in our own backyards as small businesses, from plant shops to banks, have adapted.
On the surface, we can see enforcement of social distancing, requirement of masks, and more frequent cleaning in public spaces. After interviewing several representatives at local small businesses, it was remarkable to see the number of changes they have implemented in the past nine months - changes in products, processes and how to communicate with people. As Rita Berry, Senior Mechanic, at Intown Bicycles said, “We’ve made a million changes since March.”
The biggest shared trend was a significant shift in main products and services. Understandably, this outspread restructuring was based on behavioral change of customers. Nearly everyone was now spending all of their time at home and public gatherings were cancelled or minimized. This sudden flux was so far from normalcy that large adaptation had to be acquired for every business. And fast! As Steve Jobs said, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back toward the technology - not the other way around.”
At Cook’s Warehouse the manager, Carl, described how they transitioned to more retail sales instead of their previously very successful cooking classes because it required less interaction. Cook’s Warehouse was one of the fortunate retailers because more people were cooking at home and needed supplies. They say their sales have been actually better than previous years from the masses of people who transitioned to at-home recipes.
Another major behavioral shift was people’s hesitation to ride the subway or buses, so the amount of individuals riding bikes and other forms of singular transportation largely increased. This caused a large demand across the globe. At Intown Bicycles, due to the pandemic’s impact on manufacturing and the newfound pressure, they struggled with the very limited stock of bikes and parts so they restructured their business around bike repairs instead of new bike sales. Previously a wait time was about an hour to repair a bike but it now takes a couple days because they are handling so many repairs at once.
Other stores transitioned to items that could possibly help customers’ home atmosphere for obvious reasons. Little Barn Apothecary, a store centered around wellness products, began to play into what customers would want to improve their “quarantine life.” After a multitude of requests for more indoor plants, they opened a new store on the same street called “Green Flamingo” dedicated to living house plants. “We did the unheard of. We opened a store in the middle of a pandemic!” the assistant manager at Little Barn Apothecary chuckled. And it has been a great success.
The recently re-named coffee shop on North Highland, Apotheos, had some great insights. The owner, Tonya Bond, described how they opened a new facility to roast coffee beans and cold brew. This shift in product was in motion before Coronavirus but was helpful as more people started making coffee at home and coming into the store less. They shared their plans to donate a portion to charities to support the numerous people struggling in 2020.
The extent of changes continues to banks. Brittany Harris, the Assistant Branch Manager at Chase Bank, showed how they have aimed to make a self-operating system with just as much quality as a teller would. They are fading out the use of teller desks as much as possible. They also have a scheduling program for more one-on-one discussions and minimizing the number of people in the store at a certain time. All of this effort is to make a more personable and safe experience. The bank environment has also been altered to make it feel like “home”. This follows along with the new appreciation locals have for the comfort of home.
Dakota J’s, a store always known for its dresses and clothes for special occasions, transitioned to dedicate a more prominent amount of their stock to everyday clothes. They decided to make this change because of the decrease in large events and social interaction. While maintaining their classy sense of style, they found pieces that could make customers feel as if they were still put together at home.
Another theme between businesses was an optimization of physical space to meet necessary Covid-19 guidelines. Rich Chey, the owner of Doc Chey’s on North Highland, described how they utilized their outdoor porch to allow some dine-in eating while still, of course, providing pickup. At Intown Bicycles they redesigned their floorplan to allow for customers to come inside while social distancing. They consolidated the space for bikes and dedicated a corner for customer interaction. With the space they still only allow a customer inside at any moment because of the lacking square footage from many bikes. As social distancing has been one of the most mainstream regulations, I am led to believe that this was the case for many stores.
As things began to change in March and April, many businesses realized that improved communications with customers was critical. At Doc Chey’s they used their mailing list to send out frequent updates about the everchanging Covid precautions. At Dakota J’s, they diligently reached out to members through social media on all platforms. They had a website from the pre-pandemic that came to their rescue in the pandemic. Using modern technology, Dakota J’s connected all of their accounts (Instagram, Facebook, etc.) to the website to allow for updates to be easier for customers to access.
A lot has changed in 2020. From how we learn to how we shop and where we eat. While change is constant, it was dramatically magnified in the past 9 months. It is those who learned to adapt that are the leading companies of tomorrow. In the words of Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
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