CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 'Twas the Saturday before Christmas, and all throughout Charlotte, shoppers turned out to find a last-minute gift.
According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), more than 148 million people planned to hit up stores and the internet for last-minute deals. It's a slight drop from 2020's numbers when about 150 million people shopped 'til they dropped. Amidst the hustle and bustle, small business owners in the Queen City found themselves looking to get more customers at their doors and on their websites.
The good news: shoppers seem to be showing up for their neighbors.
“This year especially the community has shown up for me and there’s been a huge push," said Lily Sandford, owner of the LilBelle boutique in Charlotte's South End. "I think the pandemic really helped people want to shop small, rather than flood the malls or shop on Amazon."
LilBelle is one of the thousands of small businesses in Charlotte vying for sales, trying to weather the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit card company American Express found a similar scene across the country; of all the small businesses they surveyed, 78% said holiday sales will play a deciding factor in whether or not they'll be open for business in 2022. For Sandford, it looks like she's gotten plenty of support this season.
“It touches my heart that people want to see small businesses succeed, they’ve seen a lot closed over the past year and a half," she said.
The remaining sales will likely be online for Sandford and other small businesses; the NRF estimates almost half of customers that will keep shopping until Christmas Day will place orders online. Any sale will help keep about two-thirds of consumer dollars spent in local communities. And that matters a lot for the LilBelle boutique, which had no choice but to hit the ground running early in the pandemic.
"There really wasn't an option not to open because I signed my lease at the beginning of 2020, pre-COVID," Sandford noted.
Along with sales concerns, low staffing has beleaguered businesses both big and small. While Sandford has managed to keep a full staff and has been more fortunate overall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported more than 20,000 retail employees left their shops in November 2021. Despite an overall 210,000 payroll employee increase that month across the board, retail saw the second-highest decline; more than 25,000 government workers also left their jobs. Meanwhile, both information and the mining and logging industries each saw 2,000 employees hand in their resignations.
Overall, unemployment claims are at their lowest in the last 50 years, but Sandford understands why there are some people opting to leave the workforce amidst the pandemic.
"There’s a lot of concern. I think some people are worried about their health so they’re just not going back to the workforce," said U.S Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh. "Some people have childcare concerns and they’re paying too much in childcare and not going back in the workforce."
It's not just the local shops who are concerned; big companies are trying to find creative ways to entice people to join them. Walmart raised its starting hourly pay from $11 to $12 and plans to hire more than 20,000 workers who are eligible to earn debt-free Bachelor's degrees. Meanwhile, Amazon plans to hire 125,000 employees with an average starting wage of around $18 per hour, with some fulfillment centers offering a $3,000 sign-on bonus.
Big or small, businesses are looking at a smaller pond of potential hires; the BLS reports an estimated 5.9 million Americans who aren't currently in the workforce do want a job out of a total of 6.88 million people unemployed as reported by Statista. For comparison: in November 2020, Statista said 10.73 million Americans were estimated to be without a job.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.