How a Los Banos small-business owner is coping during COVID-19

Life during the pandemic has been a challenge for small businesses in the state and country, especially in a rural town like Los Banos.

One example of a local business reacting to this challenge is Pearson’s Jewelers in downtown Los Banos. Pearson’s has been in business for 25 years, but it hadn’t before faced a challenge like this.

I had the opportunity to interview the owner, Sherry Pearson, to listen to her experiences and perspectives. As she said, “It seems like a century ago that we were ordered to shut down our small businesses. It really hit me hard. I knew I’d have to lay off my employees. Who knows if they would return to work?”

Sherry didn’t know how she would survive. “In a jewelry store,” she said, “we need foot traffic to make sales and take in jewelry repair.” Eventually retail stores were told they could do business curbside, but “that doesn’t work in my business,” she said.

“Like so many other small retailers,” Sherry continued, “I had to put on my thinking cap to develop a plan. I’d been having some recent success with social media advertising, so I decided to double down my advertising on Facebook and Instagram.

“I began taking multiple photos of merchandise I had in stock,” she added, “offering free shipping as well as curbside delivery. I also offered video shopping and Facetime shopping. It was fun, at first, and I was making good sales.

“Working alone,” Sherry said, “I found it took an incredible amount of time to deal with submitting photos and packaging up merchandise that I had sold, but I was happy to do it.

“All sales were by credit card with bank charges fees for each transaction,” Sherry added. “But that was OK too. I was appreciative of those who wished to ‘shop local.’”

Sherry pointed out that jewelers like her know that during the pandemic more people are shopping online because they do not want to go out. Even as jewelry shops reopen, this pattern remains a challenge, since clients have become accustomed to shopping online.

“However,” Sherry said, “stores like mine have something many online sites do not have — excellent caring, in-person customer service. We have to rely on that always! Personal customer service is what makes us unique!”

Sherry belongs to the Independent Jewelers’ Association, a group of locally owned jewelry store owners. During the pandemic they’ve been sharing ideas to help and support each other.

One idea that Sherry used was a “Win It Wednesday” promotion. She would post a photo of an item that would be given away along with a question, such as, “What’s the one thing you look forward to doing most once the quarantine is over?”

Contestants are asked to like her Facebook page, provide comments and tag two friends with their comment. Sherry posts the question on a Tuesday evening, then on Thursday reveals the winner. “This contest,” she said, “has broadened our outreach base on our business Facebook page, and it has created a bit of fun in the process.”

Jewelers in her group also suggested that store owners go through all of their inventory, take out some older merchandise and plan a sale upon reopening.

Other suggestions of group members included updating marketing plans, giving “pay it forward” donations for those in need, deep cleaning shops and trying every way they can to keep their name out there.

Even though she had never applied for assistance before, Sherry felt the need to apply for the loan opportunities the federal government was promoting for small business owners. “After all,” she said, “no foot traffic in my business means no cash flow, and yet the rent, utilities and vendor payments continue.

“As I began the process of applying for the loans,” Sherry added, “I realized everyone else was also applying. It took me three days each to submit my Payroll Protection loan and my Economic Disaster relief loan — because their systems kept crashing. It was all very frustrating, and all the while I was putting a lot of my personal financial information out on the internet.”

Fortunately, she was able to get two small loans for which she is grateful, but she is concerned about the strings and reporting requirements attached. “I know there are some,” she said. “For example, the Payroll Protection process requires that in order for the loan to be forgiven, 75% of the money needs to go to payroll. That will leave me with around $900 to pay my own business expenses.”

The employee whom Sherry wanted this loan to benefit, however, later said she could not return to work because of school closures. The employee had to help her daughter, who works, with childcare.

Once Sherry was given the approval to re-open, she developed a procedure that allows only two clients in the store at one time, requires social distancing and mandates frequent sanitizing of door handles and counters. Also, store employees and customers need to wear face coverings.

All this means she has incurred additional expenses for face masks, sanitizers, signage and plexi-glass screens. But, as she said, “I’m doing all this because we need human contact and interaction.”

Sherry gives her best wishes to other small business owners and encourages them, her customers and everyone in Los Banos to “stay safe and healthy!”

John Spevak wrote this for the Los Banos Enterprise. His email is john.spevak@gmail.com.