MONROE — For the months of March and April, 2020, the normally bustling sidewalks of downtown Monroe showed and the shop lights dimmed as business owners nationwide had to suddenly and indefinitely close their doors to the public.
“We’ll never get back those two months that we lost, like everybody else,” Alicia DeMichele of Luecke’s Diamond Center Inc said.
To combat the loss of revenue, Main Street Monroe came together to put on live shows where people could see products and make purchases from the safety of their homes.
The approximately one-hour long shows were streamed to Facebook, where viewers could “meet” the storeowner and see products that they could then purchase in the comments.
Viewers can ask questions in the comments which are then answered almost immediately by Kareesa Wilson, a volunteer who donated time to help at every single show.
“It was really kind of an ideal way to shop,” Main Street Monroe Executive Director Jordan Nordby said. “A lot of the times if you’re shopping online, the questions you have, you can’t get answers to or it’s not in the description or you have to read reviews. But we were able to just field those questions immediately as they came in. It’s really just online shopping with a very strong local touch.”
Nordby said that the live sales started just before stores were forced shut in March, and continued throughout the pandemic because of their success and positive feedback.
“We really appreciate our customers and everyone who came in and made purchases during the lives,” DeMichele said. “We’re very thankful for that.”
DeMichele was just one of 18 business owners to participate in the shows, which generated a total of $85,488. Every cent raised went directly to the local businesses participating.
The shows didn’t only allow stores to continue making sales even without customers coming in person, but they also helped many Main Street Business owners keep bills paid throughout the pandemic.
“For a store to maybe make $3,500 or $5,500 in a night… that’s two months of rent paid,” Nordby said. “For some of the shops, they were even able to match or come close to what they had done last Shop Small Saturday because the lives made up the difference.”
Shop Small Saturday, which is held the Saturday following Thanksgiving, proved challenging for many small businesses in 2020 due to the pandemic. Many customers opted to avoid stores altogether.
“Even before they were forced to close by the state, people just kind of disappeared,” Nordby said. “They weren’t coming into the shops, and our question was what can we do?”
At Mixed Petals Boutique, which has since moved off of the Square, owner Melissa Phillips credits the live sales in part for her business surviving the pandemic.
“It was instrumental in keeping the business going,” Phillips said. Phillips had used Facebook Live videos to sell products before, but had not seen the level of participation and interaction that she has since the pandemic began.
Nordby said that the live shows will likely not be going anywhere, even with the end of the pandemic, and many store owners agreed.
“People, if they’re a little leery because of the pandemic, I feel like this is a nice way to get out there and do home shopping on the computer and just see what we have to offer without having to come into the store,” DeMichele said.
Additional LIVE sales will continue taking place in upcoming weeks and months, with Luecke’s, 213 Mercantile and Max’s Threads hosting on Feb. 8, 9 and 11 respectively. Each show will start at 7 p.m. and can be found at facebook.com/DowntownMainStreetMonroe.
