Surviving
COVID-19 Cut costs, contact business partners and look for opportunities to beat back tough times
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hen COVID-19’s arrival in Minnesota started forcing the closure of schools, restaurants and bars, it sent Minnesota small businesses reeling. Doom and gloom, ranging from layoffs to closings, dominated the headlines. Sarah Quickel, owner of Enchanté in Stillwater, heard all the noise and felt the same pain. But she also keeps plowing forward, finding ways to meet customers’ needs in as many different ways as possible. While there are a lot of ways she can’t compete with large retailers, she can be nimble. She’s offering through social media to meet up with customers at the Stillwater store or to display her women’s apparel offerings via Facetime. It’s not replacing all of her lost sales by a long shot, but it has made a difference. Within a day of a series of social media advertisements, she was showing shoes to a woman in Arizona over a social media channel. “Really, honestly, you have to just keep being creative,” she says. “I’ve tried to come up with ways that we can succeed that the big stores can’t offer. You’ve got to keep it personal. What we do well is keeping it unique and personal and fun.” Where everyone’s email inbox is inundated with messages from every list they’ve ever signed up for describing how they’re getting through the pandemic, Quickel is determined to be an oasis, a source of fun amidst the drumbeat of bad news. “That’s not our job,” she says of the hundreds of companies out there reminding people to wash their hands and not touch their faces. “I really focus on retail therapy. Let’s just try to make people laugh and smile. They can turn to other
sources for fearful information or factual information. Everyone has their different forms of therapy. What I’ve been trying to focus on is people who do like retail therapy. You’ve just got to focus on how you can remain unique.”
Staying upbeat, finding sales
Quickel’s husband works in healthcare. She’s heard all the bad news and felt the panic. But she’s also got bills to pay and she’s determined her store isn’t going to succumb to the tough times without a fight. So, while the streetss surrounding Enchanté are mostly empty, her staff is taking videos of spring wear, getting ready to put it on social media and find some sales. “We’re trying to find ways we can succeed that the big stores can’t offer,” she says. “We’re all in this together. Nobody needs a pity party. We’re all in this together.”
Preparing in advance
Enchanté is just one of many small businesses across the state right now trying to find ways to stay alive. St. Paul-based Deneen Pottery, which manufactures high-quality handmade mugs, shut down for a week as soon as the “social distancing” guidelines were released. The company has 60 production employees in a small space working together to manufacture the mugs through its production process, which means “a lot of
Normally bustling streets in St. Paul were nearly empty on St. Patrick’s Day as COVID-19 ended the revelry.
BY ANDREW TELLIJOHN photographs by Tom Dunn 14
UPSIZE MARCH • APRIL 2020
www.upsizemag.com
