» Downtown Johnstown shops navigate slow post-COVID climate

» Downtown Johnstown shops navigate slow post-COVID climate

CITY OF JOHNSTOWN — Times are tough, said Brian DeLorenzo-Bochenek while tinkering with a musical instrument at the front counter of Vishnu Music.

Foot traffic at the instrument sales, parts and repair center during the early winter months was lighter than usual, according to the store manager.

“For our business, it’s kind of an extra thing,” DeLorenzo-Bochenek said. “People don’t have money as it is, they’re not going to buy a guitar.”

Vishnu Music is among a number of downtown merchants in Johnstown wading through rough currents in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Some stakeholders are hopeful that spring and summer shoppers will soften the blow of a laggard holiday season — a moment small shops bank on to buoy profit margins.

For Toying Around, an independent gaming store on the main strip, business has been at its slowest pace since the retailer opened doors in 2012. Typically business picks up after Thanksgiving, but last season owner Vincent McCallum didn’t see much movement until the last two weeks before Christmas.

It’s a fairly comment scenario, according to Jessica Henry McClements, chair of the Downtown Johnstown Business & Professional Association and owner of McLemon’s boutique.

“Christmas is always awesome,” said McClements. “And it was just like I had one good day and then three bad days. I’m not totally alone in that.”

By the DJBPA’s defined boundaries, the downtown area stretches east to west from North Chase St. to Meadow St. and with a block’s radius north to south from Main St. The majority of existing shops are less than two decades old.

Something Special, a children’s clothing store on West Main Street owned by Nancy Blanchard, announced intentions to throw in the towel in early April after more than three decades. The shop will close in late June.

Circumstances, the 83-year-old owner said, are a far cry from Something Special’s “booming” salad days.

“Well, what are you gonna do?” Blanchard said. “It’s part of life, I guess.”

A mix of state-mandated minimum wage increases — making it difficult to pay for sole employee and daughter Louanne VanNostrand — and shrinking sales, led to talks of closing the shop for good.

Pandemic conditions are believed to have intensified an already rocky landscape for independent sellers in the Fulton County community. For decades, big-box corporate dominance, shifting spending habits, deindustrialization and rising costs have become the bane of mom-and-pop storefronts.

Within the last 15 years, e-commerce has increasingly become a point of concern for small shop owners, as Amazon amassed greater and greater influence in the market. Between 2019 and 2020, e-commerce sales increased, respectively, from $571.2 billion to $815.4 billion.

Blanchard has attributed Something Special’s decline to the popularity of online shopping during COVID-19.

“Business has gone down the tube,” Blanchard said.

Meanwhile, the city of Johnstown, one of only 18 cities outside of New York City to collect a slice of sales revenue, experienced a 12.8% sales tax increase between 2021 and 2022. Between January and February of last year and now, the collection kitty grew from 700,000 to $830,000 — a 19.2% increase.

Johnstown Mayor Amy Praught believes that higher costs, higher gas prices, spending in the city’s commercial North Comrie Avenue arterial and restaurant spending are likely culprits behind the sales tax revenue increase.

While year-to-year retail sales are up, consumer spending is expected to dip as projections of a global recession loom in the distance. The state’s Division of Budget expects a mild economic downturn at some point this year.

McCallum, who has started to see some sales pick up at Toying Around in April, believes that business woes are, in part, the result of a broader inflation-induced affordability crisis deterring consumers from buying novelty items.

“I would chalk it up to inflation and food because people need their food more than they need toys and collectors items and action figures,” McCallum said.

From a bastion of fandom stickers to comic books to oddities, McCallum said that he strives to carry a diverse array of items. A “tourist destination” as he put it, much of Toying Around’s customer base comprises out-of-towners as far as Canada seeking to grab rare finds.

The shop holds block parties each year in an effort to attract more patrons to the downtown strip.

“We build a good community base,” McCallum said. “We always tell the businesses to put stuff on the sidewalk because a lot of people will walk up and down, and they sometimes don’t pop in.

On a similar mission, the city’s Tourism and Special Events committee and DJBPA centered its annual Colonial Stroll event last year around driving commerce by placing festivities in or around local shops.

“We try to promote and have events there and bring the business downtown,” Praught said. “But it’s so hard to say because I think COVID gave people the ability to know how to shop online.”

Looking ahead, the Republican mayor wants independent retailers to remain part of the strip. Additionally, she wishes to see more restaurants offering wine, beer and entertainment in hopes of luring an evening crowd to the area.

That’s similar to what Second Wind Coffee owner Shawn Beebie envisions for a new location inside the old Johnstown Restaurant Supply store, which shuttered in 2020. He previously told the Leader-Herald that he wants to foster an atmosphere akin to Saratoga Springs.

Second Wind Coffee has gained a following since it launched back in 2018 on 32 West Main Street.

“It’s hard for a business owner to open up on a main street in a small town unless they really have a niche,” Praught said. “Vintage Cafe has a niche. Shawn at the coffee shop has a niche and those are things people are drawn to.”

Monday marked Linda Joseph’s 15th year operating Vintage Cafe on West Main St. The brunch joint was first opened by the Wochs brothers back in 1963.

Joseph noted that the establishment has been “doing OK” as of late. Takeout orders have increased slightly since the pandemic and both dine-in and catering operations have remained relatively consistent.

“People get what they need [in retail] on the internet sometimes, whereas they physically come out here to get out of the house, grab something to eat and socialize a bit,” Joseph said.

Tyler A. McNeil can be reached at 518-395-3047 or [email protected] Follow him on Facebook at Tyler A. McNeil, Daily Gazette or Twitter @TylerAMcNeil

GAZETTE COVERAGE

Ensure access to everything we do, today and every day, check out our subscribe page at DailyGazette.com/Subscribe

More from The Daily Gazette:

Categories: Fulton Montgomery Schoharie, News

#Downtown #Johnstown #shops #navigate #slow #postCOVID #climate

TOP