Minneapolis, MN
“We were closed the third week in March because of governor’s orders, but we did curbside pickup,” recounts Kim Ehrick, manager of the AAA Minneapolis Travel Store, a 2,800-square-foot store inside the main office for AAA Minneapolis. “We reopened the Tuesday after Memorial Day, we’ve been open a couple of weeks. It’s still not exactly business as usual because people are still waiting for travel bans to lift.”
“It’s not every day that’s a step forward; some days you’ll have a really strong day, other days just medium. But each week it picks up, that’s the trend.”
That trend is helped by being an auto club destination. “Our AAA magazine, Live Play, AAA, prints six times per year, we just had a magazine drop, we feature items in a regular article entitled ‘Travel Store Essentials.’ At this time of year we’d usually have something affiliated with road trips, and that has worked for us.”
The store is running a leaner staff, and also taking precautions. “We’re limiting the amount of people that come in, we’re requiring masks for anyone entering the building as well as employees.”
Ehrick says they turned up the car travel a little. “We kind of shifted the focus, working hand in hand with our marketing department, who’re really great about getting the word out on the store. We have lots of things tied to road trips for the summer, and camping, putting together a shop within a shop, with an outdoor feel to it. We’re going to get in some hammocks, trying to utilize some vendors we have, hammocks from Sea to Summit – one of our employees in our marketing department is a ’mocker, someone who enjoys the activity, she’s a resident expert and writing an article. It’s something you maybe wouldn’t ordinarily buy at a travel store, but we’re embracing all kinds of new changes, relying on our really great people who are really savvy and in touch with trends.”
The store is also leveraging its AAA ties, piggybacking on top of weekly blasts from the travel department to include a tie-in item. “For example our travel department is promoting Clearwater Beach as a destination, so we include beach-related things we sell in the store, one is a travel blanket by Matador and a compact Bluetooth speaker by DM Merchandising.”
“We’re continuing with curbside. We are getting a handful of requests – we’re making sure people feel comfortable. And we’re trying a personal shopper program, that’s new to us. We are using a software package called Setmore, where customers can set an appointment online, list what they’re interested in, and get time with us one on one. We’ve seen some interest and it’s something to try. Ideally, come fall, people will be thinking about 2021 at some point and we’ll have really strong business.”
Andy’s Luggage celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, during COVID-19, read the email from Gregg Markin, owner of Andy’s Luggage in Long Island’s Nassau County, who provided a retailer update from one of the country’s hardest-hit counties.
Markin is a lifelong industry veteran. “My family worked for Andy’s in the 1960s. I started working for him when I was 15, doing repairs. I went out on my own at 18, but I was basically a repair shop for him and other places. I’d come pick up all his repair work and bring it to my shop, it was a very big part of my business. So in a way I never really left there.”
“We’re in Phase 2 of reopening this week, with limited hours,” Markin relates. “We started with Phase 1, curbside pickup and drop-off, but it hadn’t really developed. No one’s traveling. We’re still opening for limited hours, just to remind people we’re not going anywhere, but travel here in New York is completely off.”
The shop, which has been in the same location since 1950 and fronts on a main road, is open 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tuesday–Thursday, plus Saturday, with no more than three customers in the store at a time. “We actually closed three months; right now it’s half the hours we normally do.”
Look to the store website, and there’s a welcoming community message to go with a photo of Markin’s granddaughter Madison seated atop a pile of luggage, with aggressive sales prices up front to bring people in. “Our plan is, as the phases move up, to increase our hours. [Now,] with the lack of travel and lack of confidence in people we’d pay more for labor and the air conditioning than we could possibly generate with the business. We’re monitoring on a weekly basis.”
It’s slow, but Markin sees signs for optimism. “I’m right across the street from a McDonald’s, I see the lines getting longer outside. We notice there’s more traffic out front. Every day the traffic becomes more and more.”
Prairie Village, KS
“On March 23 everything shut down,” says Erin Leonard, manager/buyer at Bag & Baggage. “We’re in the Kansas City area. Four counties are right here, banded together. First it was Kansas City, locally, than our county. Kansas was one of the first to shut down all the schools.”
“We opened May 11, when we could reopen. We do have shorter hours right now, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday. We’re opening an hour later and closing two hours earlier; one week we did stay open until 7 p.m. but there wasn’t much traffic.” Despite the reduced hours, Bag & Baggage was fortunate not to have to cut people, although some older employees elected not to return just yet.
“We’ve been sending out blasts about the masks, ways to travel safe,” says Leonard of the store’s outreach efforts. “We have a really large customer base for emails, and we‘ve been doing email blasts.”
The store is changing things up a little on the product side. “We did get in some masks from Zorbitz, and sold 240 of them in the last two weeks, that’s one thing that’s been selling,” Leonard notes. “We also have the Careful Key from Zootility,” a metal hook-like tool for opening doors, pressing elevator buttons and interacting with keypads in a non-contact way. “We will be getting in more UV wands, seat covers, stuff like that. And I’ve been posting cool stuff on Instagram – not luggage, but we have these neat gifts.”
“We’re more focused on road trips, National Geographic and state park books. Road travel is personally what I’m doing, going to Rocky Mountain National Park with my family.”
Sandy, UT
“Things are normal here in Utah,” reports CEO Josh Cross of Elios, which makes smart power banks and location-tracking products. “We never officially closed. About 40% [of our team] stayed home, the rest came in and maintained social distancing.”
Like most manufacturers who rely on an outside supply chain, and specifically Chinese manufacturing, Elios has experienced delays. “Right after Chinese New Year manufacturing stopped, our supply chains stopped. Our lead times grew from two months to six months,” Cross says.
The company has shifted focus from what it can’t control – manufacturing – to something it does solely in house. “We’re strengthening our software platform, which is not a tangible product. We’re really just focusing on what we can,” says Cross.
“Our company’s different than others in the travel space, we have partnerships with the Department of Defense and U.S. Government, and that has increased. Our business has grown to where we’re hiring engineers and technical people, we’re unique. Some of our partners, their demand just dropped overnight 95%.”
“October and April are the [normal] demand areas for our bag partners. We’re not going to be making a good launch in October, with the disruption across the industry, but it’s not going to impact us, it’s already in our plan.”
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