Local businesses see fluctuation in sales over course of 2021

WORLAND – The course of 2021 was a rollercoaster for many businesses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic's impact on supply as well as the impact from customers being quarantined. In Worland, residents shopped locally, helping local businesses thrive in what would otherwise be an absence of sales.

Over the course of 2021, sawtheir sales improve, especially around Christmas. According to the owner, Desiree Ross, her Christmas sales were better than normal.

Ross made several changes to her business due to COVID in order to stay open. She no longer takes clothing that has been through rummage sales. She has also been thoroughly wiping down counters and thoroughly cleaning. She said she takes clothing home just to be washed.

"I do everything I can to keep viruses away from here," Ross explained.

She added that she had seen an overall increase in sales.

Ross mentioned that she feels her window displays have helped bring in some extra attention recently. She added that she has new consigners and different types of items.

Unfortunately, with an increase in attention comes an increase in theft. Ross said that she has noticed theft has picked up the past year or so, causing her to have to change the way some things are done.

This year, she wasn't able to get her usual product in for Halloween. According to Ross, she had to cancel several orders that wouldn't have made it on time.

"I just don't have the room for all the extra items," she said.

She had originally been worried in 2020 when she had to close the shop for a month, but once she had opened back up, it had brought in new customers as well as old ones. Ross said that it was slow at first, and that she had put sales on items to keep people at home such as books and puzzles. She said that once other stores started to open back up, sales started up again as well.

The Black Sheep Boutique is another local shop whose sales did well over the course of last year. According to owner Caryn Ramirez, sales were very good and she saw more people come out and shop, with more people shopping local.

"Our Christmas sales were really good," Ramirez said. "We had set a sales goal for the month and we went over that goal."

A donation and consignment section was recently added to the back of the boutique where they will be consigning name brand items. According to Ramirez, they will have clothing for everyone.

Another big change that is happening to the boutique is an addition to the upstairs portion of the store. According to Ramirez, they will be adding a "classy adult section."

"I think it's a great opportunity for those looking for bachelorette parties and gag gifts," Ramirez said. "It will have all things bedroom."

According to Ramirez, the store has already gone back to normal after COVID, but they are continuing to sanitize surfaces as a precaution.

Larsen's Bicycle Shop owner Lisa Weamer has been building up bicycle inventory after 2020. In a previous interview with Weamer, she stated that 2020's demand was much higher than normal and they spent the 2021 summer with few mountain bikes.

In the previous interview, Weamer had stated, "we were off the charts because there was an unprecedented demand, but then it fell off the cliff because we had to hold onto money to buy inventory back."

Weamer had explained that with COVID, kids were out of school early, leading to the parents buying them bicycles so they had something fun to do and engage in outdoor activities.

Weamer said that it has been a funky couple of years but Christmas "really pulled itself out."

She added that she expects things will be more predictable and less of a struggle for this year. She also added that inventory is built back a bit, and that there is less uncertainty than there has been. Weamer said she is looking forward to business as usual, and is ready for things to return to normal.

Weamer explained that COVID changed their supply channel. She said that the store was considered essential, so they never closed. She explained that they are not 100% back to normal, and that they are still scrambling for merchandise, but it is not like it used to be, and better than it was.

She also added that this year's Christmas was the best they have ever had, and they were up percentage wise for a month. She explained that the Christmas sales were probably doubled what they usually were, and they had more to offer.

Danielle Earl with Rocky Mountain Framing also had a good year in 2021. She said that out of seven years of business, this was the best one yet.

Earl explained that for 2022, they would be adding more custom gift options, including customizable game boards and signage, such as for weddings and anniversaries.

Pet Barn, owned by Terry and Nancy Sutherland, went through several changes over the course of last year to help with business.

The business recently brought back its grooming service and added a Do It Yourself dog-washing station in addition to its retail sales.

In a previous interview, Terry Sutherland noted that the business was hit hard due to COVID and the surge of online sales. Because of this, they had to look at an entirely new business plan and focus on service products. Thus they brought in the dog wash station and brought in a new groomer.

In addition to the service part of the business, they also started offering a line of Diamond Dog Food in 40-pound bags. The company features the 40-pound bags so they are offered at a lower cost but it is still high quality dog food.

"I took sales tax receipts from 2020, and I took them from 2021 to see what the difference was," Terry said. "Just looking at those two numbers, our business was down 1% for 2021 as compared to 2020. We decided that I had to change my business plan, and offer more services, and try to reduce our pricing to be more competitive and to improve our profitability. We did that in July, we brought in the new dog washing station, we brought in a new groomer and we started offering bulk sales at about a 50% discount. By doing that, we managed to stay within 1% of 2020. It would have been worse than that had we not made those changes."

Terry Sutherland added that they had an increase in dog toy sales at the end of 2021, which contributed to increase in sales around Christmas.