April 7 , 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by the Minnehaha County and Lincoln County Economic Development Associations.

The businesses that bring life to Main Street in Dell Rapids all reflect how life has changed.

The Mason Jar Boutique has shifted to online sales.

The bowling alley Pinz offers free delivery of family-friendly food.

The coffee shop LaDelle & Fourth has shifted to curbside and carryout. Last week, it started preorders for homemade fudge to “make your ‘quarantined’ Easter just a little bit sweeter.”

Downtown restaurant Papa’s Pub & Eatery found a hit with spinach dip and cannoli to go over the weekend.

From her closed storefront at children’s store Corduroy & Pixie Dust, owner Heather Ness knew that as soon as schools shut their doors, hers needed to as well.

“I knew everybody would have their kids in here playing with our toys. It would be a huge place for everyone to congregate, and I just said it wasn’t happening,” she said.

Then, the entrepreneur in her began to surface. She took to Facebook, offered a deep discount on toys, and business started to come back.

“If you live in Dells and Baltic, I will hand deliver your orders,” she said. “And we will hand deliver into Sioux Falls for $5. And it’s free shipping for orders over $25 except for toys. We’re trying to stay really active on Facebook. We post something every day, which I normally didn’t do before.”

She also has continued to source new inventory, partnering with a company that makes bath bombs in Salem and usually sells them at vendor shows. With those canceled, Ness did a wholesale order, and sales followed.

Her Easter “sundaes” — hero and mermaid-themed buckets of bath bombs — completely sold out.

“So we can help them because they have no money coming in, and it’s a kid-safe, friendly product for Easter baskets,” she said. “We’ve been trying to come up with new things every week, activities or items. You have to keep people engaged.”

Another hit: Balloons, which have been flying out the door in more ways than one.

“We have done a ton of them because everyone is stuck at home. They can’t have birthday parties,” Ness said. And, thanks to a fundraising idea, customers also have contributed to a fund Ness is using to deliver balloons to senior living centers.

“We’ve given out 230-some balloons already,” she said. “We can’t personally deliver them, but they will post on Facebook people with their balloons.”

She even has engaged her 4-year-old granddaughter to help with online promotions.

“What didn’t work today might work next week. You just keep trying,” she said. “That’s about all you can do. But the community is great out here.”

In Hartford, where the Chamber of Commerce counts about 140 businesses, “I think everyone is finding different ways to adapt,” board president Gabby Hoing said.

“I heard from the chiropractor’s office they may try virtual visits because patients are fearful of coming in. The restaurants were quick to close their dining room. No one had to tell them. They started doing carryout and delivery.”

The Goat Bar and Grill is still offering discounted meals for seniors and will deliver them, she said.

“And stores like Knotty Gnome, Prairie Boutique and Even in the Midwest boutique in Humboldt are pushing more of their online sales,” Hoing said. “I think the nice thing about Hartford and the businesses here are almost all owned by entrepreneurs and really willing to go above and beyond for their customers.”

Her own business, Kore Cares, is a home care agency for seniors, the disabled and the sick.

“We have clients who have basic needs like housekeeping, shower assistance and companionship who are thinking about canceling services, but now more than ever they need to keep these services so we can keep their homes clean and help them with good hygiene,” she said.

“On top of COVID-19, we are dealing with an already massive labor shortage in home care and health care in general. I have all this great staff I don’t want to lose because business will come back.”

At the same time, she’s getting calls from clients in crisis mode because they were supposed to be admitted to a nursing home and now can’t be or because a caregiver has gotten sick.

“So we’ve had a lot of last-minute emergency calls,” she said. “Things are balancing out, but as things shut down and people are told to stay home, I’m worried about retaining staff.”

Businesses such as Grocott Ink & Thread in Hartford have been affected as work such as custom apparel orders for sports teams has gone away. It produced a shirt now sold at Prairie Boutique touting how Hartford is stronger together.

“And they’ve been buying lunch for employees and will post pictures and remind you of who’s delivering,” Hoing said.

“And then there are businesses you don’t think of, like A-1 Portable Toilets. With events canceled, porta-potty sales have gone down, but now people need hand washing and hand sanitizing stations, so they’re being called on for those things. As a chamber, we’ve called a lot of businesses to try and figure out how to support them, and they just keep reinforcing that people should buy local.”

Businesses in the 518 Marketplace in Harrisburg are adapting to the COVID-19 related changes for retail and coming up with alternative ways to reach customers.

The doors are closed for shopping, but customers can use the drive-thru to pick up prepared meals from Emer-GenZ Eats & Treats; coffee, breakfast, lunch and baked goods from Sassy Cakes & Coffee; and online orders of jewelry and more from BluMoon Designs, said Pam Harris, owner of Emer-GenZ and the founder of the marketplace.

Home decor shop White Barn Charm is temporarily closed but is connecting with customers through Facebook.

Starting this week, the other 518 Marketplace shops will offer a Facebook Live class for kids on Thursday afternoons.

 

“We were all watching Facebook chatter — and jokes! — about bored kids, listening to our family and friends with kids home-schooling woes, and we were just brainstorming about how to keep our customers engaged during this time,” Harris said. “This is what we came up with. If it goes good, it may become something more permanent.”

“Facebook Love From the Marketplace” will feature a cooking lesson with Pam, a baking lesson with Sassy Cakes owner Ashly Nordmeyer and a crafting class with Amy Balster of BluMoon.

Balster will have a crafting kit for a beaded wind chime that families can purchase and pick up at the drive-thru before the class.

Harris will post a grocery list in advance of each week’s class. “My classes will be pretty basic,” she said. “The first one will be how to safely hard boil an egg. Then, since it’s Easter, we’ll use the eggs to make chicks and deviled egg Easter baskets.”

Nordmeyer is putting together an Easter-themed cupcake decorating kit that families can purchase in advance of the class. Since the start of schools closing, she has been selling similar decorating kits with a half-dozen cupcakes, three colors of frosting and four toppings.

The bakery also is partnering with Lauriebelles boutique, which has locations in Tea and Sioux Falls, to bring cupcakes to workers at essential businesses.

It’s one of many ways boutique owner Laurie Karlson is trying to give back during the pandemic. She spent last weekend putting together Easter baskets for 700 residents in five retirement communities.

“There’s so much heaviness right now, and the retirement communities make me very sad just thinking about not being able to get visitors in,” she said.

“I feel like in general Tea is pretty quiet other than the grocery store and hardware store right now. I feel like everybody is feeling the same way – just the uncertainty of trying to be cautiously optimistic and what it means for the business community and everybody who works for them.”

With both of her physical stores closed, her staff has been deep cleaning, working in the warehouse and taking on projects that “we never seem to find time to do,” she said.

“We have to be extra diligent and work even harder to keep things moving in the business because we don’t have store traffic, and everyone is just busy.”

Her ample online business is “going well,” she said. “There was definitely a dip initially, but now we’re just working really hard to keep people engaged and to bring a break into their day, some light into their day through some retail therapy.”

She also has done gift card giveaways on social media for other small businesses and has been selling T-shirts for donations to various causes.

“I have such a soft spot for other small businesses right now because the future is very unsure, so I’m trying to do my part personally and our part as a business,” Karlson said.

“We’re just praying for normalcy sooner than later.”