The specialty lifestyle brand, Spartina 449 is one of the Southeast’s most recognizable coastal brands. And just like every other business in the retail and wholesale sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an interruption to business. On March 17, all 13 of Spartina 449’s stores closed their doors to foot traffic. The opening of a new store in Savannah, Georgia, was also put on hold.
But while much of the country continues to be only allowed to conduct essential businesses, the four states where Spartina 449’s retail operations are located are allowing retail to reopen. Spartina 449 is being strategic about how and when it opens each location.
“We’ve been reopening in stages according to state,” says Christy Sheets, Spartina 449 director of retail stores.
In South Carolina, the company headquarters in Bluffton and its 7 retail locations reopened April 23. Three stores in Georgia, including the new Savannah location, opened May 1.
The new store in Savannah is in the heart of City Market. “It is an incredible, historical building location right on the main street. It’s one that we are really excited about. It is stunning and very unique,” says Sheets.
Spartina 449’s Florida store reopened May 6. The last to open will be the company’s three North Carolina stores. Pending the governor’s approval, those stores will reopen in mid-May.
Though customers continued to place orders online and by phone when the stores were closed, they are ecstatic about the stores reopening, according to Sheets.
“Our customers are extremely loyal to our brand,” she says. “They made it a point even through the pandemic to call the store or go online to make purchases. And then the response we've gotten since we’ve reopened, they are thrilled. We have people coming in just beyond excited for the shopping experience again.”
While these stores are reopening, it won’t be quite as customers are accustomed to. Spartina 449 is taking uniform and strict precautions across all its stores to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“We are requiring all associates and customers to wear a mask when inside the store, and we’re providing them for both our associates and our customers.” Sheets says. “Every store has its own supply of masks and gloves to offer to our staff and our customers.”
Spartina 449 is also giving customers three different options for how to shop. Customers can shop inside the store with personal protective equipment for themselves and staff. They can also choose to do touchless curbside pickup by calling ahead. Each store has designated areas where a customer can park the care, pop the trunk and have the purchase placed in the vehicle for them. As another option, customer can also have their items shipped. Shipping is free on purchases over $75.
“People can choose whatever option they are comfortable with,” explains Sheets.
Another way Spartina is keeping safety a priority inside the store is by limiting occupancy. “We are only operating at 20%, which is the strictest standard in terms of occupancy per store. Depending on the square footage there is a limit on the number of customers that can be in the building at the same time to encourage social distancing as they are shopping and at the register.”
Even if the state standard is looser, Sheets says the company will adopt the strictest standard across all its locations.
Store staffing is also being phased in. To start, each store that reopens will have one manager and one associate until the sales and traffic at each store supports bringing on additional staff. “It’s working well so far,” according to Sheets.
Under normal conditions, each store could have between five and 10 employees.
Hours at each store have also been reduced. All open Spartina 449 stores are currently operating from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The hours will start to vary from store to store once the shopping centers start requiring standard hours for its occupants again.
Plenty of research went into developing a strategy for reopening, according to Sheets. Having been in the retail business for over 20 years Sheets had many peers from other companies she could confer with.
“We collaborated with a lot of brands and just really took the best practices from everybody,” she says. “A lot of the things we are doing are things the retail community as a whole is doing.”
In addition to its 14 stores, Spartina 449 is sold in hundreds of other retail stores across the country. Sheets says the company still considers itself a small, local business.
The closure of Spartina 449 stores and the many other stores that carry Spartina 449 products hit the company hard.
“It’s just been very difficult. We have three different tunnels of our business. We have our wholesale business, our online business and our retail business. This pandemic truly took away wholesale and retail dollars. The only source of revenue that we had for five weeks was ecommerce, and that does not make up for an omni-channel business.”
Riley O'Connell, Spartina 449 vice president of sales for Spartina’s wholesale channel says she is pleased to see some of the company’s partner retailers also start to reopen. “They have worked so hard during this time to stay connected with their customers and create new ones through avenues like Facebook and Instagram, personal virtual shopping visits and curbside pickup and delivery,” she says. “Through it all, they have stayed creative and committed to their customers.”
Now that Spartina 449’s retail and wholesale channels are operating on some level again, Sheets is optimistic that the company will start to make up some of the business lost. She also says Spartina 449’s owner, Kay Stanley has handled the situation well. “She’s done all she can for our employees. We definitely run this business as a family-run, local business. I don’t think that we could have done anything any better.”
Sheets isn’t certain about how the situation is going to play out over the long term but says the pandemic has certainly been a game changer. She expects more strategizing on what adjustments will need to be made in the future, but right now the focus is all about the reopening.
“You have to make the right decision today before you think about the long term,” she says. ■
