Despite supply chain disruptions, a shortage of workers and other problems, small businesses have found ways to navigate the market.

The pandemic brought challenges that spurred innovations including earlier planning and ordering, offering curbside pickup service, manufacturing luxury face coverings, and even buying a warehouse to insure an adequate supply of merchandise.

The Greater Memphis Chamber recently launched a new Small Business Resiliency Playbook and website to help Memphis entrepreneurs get through major financial crises. 

Expert in cycling takes a liking to Memphis’ flat terrain, bike lanes

“It’d be terrible if you came to Memphis and a lot of your stores were closed. You lose the flavor of your city without unique shops, unique merchandise and unique concepts,” said Hal Lansky, the second-generation owner of the Lansky Bros., a Memphis clothing store since 1946.

Shipping and staffing problems were real for small businesses. Callie Vance, owner of the hemp retailer Your CBD Store, said some college students quit their jobs at the store because they had to put more time on schoolwork after the classes went online. Also, the products shipping these days needs two weeks whereas in the past it took two to three days.

Global supply chain crisis impacts Memphians’ Christmas shopping

But even during the hardest time, Vance never thought of shutting down permanently. “I have so many people that depend on me, like our employees, and my family. So that’s just something that I didn’t even want to think about.”

She finally brought on more employees using different online hiring tools. She also started to plan and place orders earlier, to allow for delays. 

Hiring remains a challenge as the ‘Great Resignation’ gains momentum

But few small business owners have taken the concept of early ordering to the same level as Binghampton merchant Clark Butcher.

Ready to ride and roll: Pandemic pastimes get more Memphians outdoors

Before the pandemic, Butcher planned orders for his store, Victory Bicycle Studio, from month to month. But in May and June of 2020, he ordered all the the bikes he expected to sell in 2021, then bought a warehouse to store them.

“These (bicycles) are big-box items. It’s stacked to the ceilings,” Butcher said. And he said investing in products early “was a total gamble.” For example, while Butcher used stock 20 to 30 of his best-selling helmet, he now keeps 150 on hand.

He said he’s glad he has the merchandise available at his Binghampton store as Christmas approaches. “If you call the company to order 50 kids’ bikes, or 20 kids’ bikes now, they would start laughing.”

Some other companies also made changes, such as making face coverings. 

When there was a shortage of masks at the beginning of the pandemic, Cheryl Pesce, owner of Cheryl Pesce The Lifestyle Store, started sewing masks at home for herself and her family.

“I had never made a mask before. Who had?” Pesce said.

Then she realized that she could make masks for customers as well. She made them with “a nice silk fabric with a cool, you know, something just wasn’t run of a mill.” Pesce said she naturally thought about making the masks different, because in her word, “I am a maker, you know, it comes naturally for me.”

Ready to ride and roll: Pandemic pastimes get more Memphians outdoors

She also opened a new store in the Laurelwood Shopping Center during the pandemic when many other businesses went closed permanently.

“Sometimes the best time to negotiate is when others are shying away from it,” Pesce said.

Even for businesses that have been open for 75 years, changes are necessary now.

Lansky Bros. at The Peabody shortened their hours and added curbside pickup for the first time, according to Julie Lansky, the third-generation owner of the store.

“If we hadn’t adapted and changing over the last 75 years, we would have been out of business,” she said.

Butcher said running a small business is stressful, and he wants people to understand the importance of shopping local.

“I stress over the six other families that rely on the income here to take care of their families. They aren’t just six other employees, they’ve got to support a family on this,” Butcher said, “Your purchase right now immediately directly impacts the six other families that rely on this business. When you go buy that shirt at Kroger or at Target, that does not change the way that woman who just scanned your barcode, that does not change the way she lives, not at all.”

Hal Lansky, whose store donated more than $9,000 to Regional One Elvis Presley Trauma Center, said the money stays in the community when people shop local. “It’s a circle that goes around,” Lansky said, “You send (the money) to Amazon? It really ends up everywhere.”

Customers said it’s the service that keeps them coming to small businesses.

Latrice Mahalitc of Glen Allan, Mississippi, has been shopping with Lansky’s for 27 years, and she said she prefers small stores because she enjoys the personal relationship with people in the stores.

Chad Johnson, an employee at Lansky’s, said one day he was even recognized by a customer who first knew him in the store 15 years ago when the customer was still in high school.

Tim Redden, another customer who’s shopped with Lansky’s for 30 to 40 years, said he enjoyed the color, style, selection and brand of the local store. “When you come to a shop like this, you’ll be wearing something that everyone else doesn’t have when you go back home,” Redden said.

Derick McMillian, who has been shopping with Victory Bicycle Studio for three to four years, said he liked shopping local because he was always recognized when he walked into the store.

Staffing shortage improves for restaurants, but times are still tough

Similarly, Kim Nichols, another customer of Victory Bicycle Studio, said she enjoyed the personal attention, too.

“I don’t like shopping, period. But if I have to shop, I’ll shop in small stores where you can take your time and people will help you.”