When a pandemic brings countless countries to its knees, how does a small business importer stay alive? By doing anything that brings in sales – from talking to suppliers to sitting and selling outside.
Yvette Jenkins’ store, Love Travels Imports, brings in merchandise and provides jobs to women across the world in countries such as Haiti, South Africa, Peru and Guatemala to be sold in her store on the Avenue of Fashion.
Jenkins imports handmade pieces created by fair trade artisans in those countries, providing work for women who are generally underprivileged and require every resource to take care of and educate their families while lifting their communities.
Like many small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a rough year for Love Travels, but the international element made it harder.
Still, the year is by no means a story of defeat.
“When I look at the year, I say ‘my numbers are down,’” says Jenkins. “But one I look at my numbers for the past few months they are up.”
She was able save the last part of the year by being creative, and adapting, a strategy she plans to use until the end of the pandemic.
Small Business Saturday is usually a big deal for Jenkins, but this year how could she face the unknown? The answer – sitting outside her store with her products.
It is not the splashiest plan, but it is working. With people still uneasy about entering unknown places, this seems a perfect way to increase sales and help the community.
Every year, Small Business Saturdays in November kick off Jenkins busy part of the year. She makes sales every day of the week from then until Christmas, and wants to do everything possible to make that happen this year.
So, every day it doesn’t snow, she will set up outside.
It’s working.
According to Jenkins, one woman told her setting up outside was why she did her Christmas shopping with her. Also, Love Travels was the only place on the Avenue of Fashion with outside selling. Aside from problems so many small businesses have had to deal with during the pandemic, Jenkins issues are compounded by the need to deal with issues in other countries where she imports products.
Shipping slowdowns, lockdowns, and curfews in those foreign lands were among the most common.
Then there were the issues even harder to predict.
Haiti, where Jenkins imports many of her products, had some civil unrest. However, much of that unrest was over a need for jobs during the pandemic. It was a problem Jenkins was able to help overcome by ordering products.
Since the Michigan lockdown ended, she has stared the problems in the face and adapted to them. That has been the story of Love Travels.
One of the biggest challenges was a change in what she was able to import.
For example, at one point, Haiti was unable to export anything, and Jenkins wanted to bring in face masks, an accessory we all have these days, from there.
When she was unable to get masks due to a shutdown in that country, a supplier in Guatemala came to her and was able to provide hand-painted face masks.
At one point, a maker of soaps, Los Ranchos, New Mexico, asked her what she needed. She responded, hand sanitizer. As luck would have it, the company had a supply of high-quality hand sanitizer that is not only scented but also does not dry out hands. A problem Jenkins found herself having thanks to constant hand washing and sanitizing.
Those two products have been her biggest sellers.
She also added no-contact delivery and curbside pick-up, which helped more of her usual products began to sell again.
Still, it was not until the annual Month of Design, which highlights local designers, in September, that Jenkins, and much of the Avenue of Fashion, started to see some real numbers again.
Much of that month was not only the fanfare but setting up displays outside stores for people to come by, look, and purchase. Outside sales was a lesson Jenkins has taken with her as she moved toward the end of the year.
For small businesses, the holiday season always plays a big role in increased sales, this year those sales are even more important because so many were adversely impacted by the lockdown.
The Avenue of Fashion has tried many things to try and keep make a difference. There is a holiday window display contest and there was Cash Mobs for Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday).
Still, it is not all about sales for Jenkins.
She imports her products to help women in other countries take more control of their lives. Unfortunately, that, too, has taken a hit during the global pandemic, but remains Jenkins’ passion.
In the past she would bring needed items, like umbrellas, to those who work to make her merchandise when she visited. Obviously, she isn’t doing much travelling these days but she continues to provide jobs for the women and is looking for new groups to help. One such business is Hillcrest AIDS Centre.
“On a trip to South Africa in 2012, I became aware of the group, built a relationship with some of their staff and began to sell their hand-beaded items,” says Jenkins. “According to their 2018-2019 annual report, 350 crafters received a sustainable living wage from that income generating program.
“Two-thousand grandmothers, from 68 GoGo support groups across 13 communities were supported and empowered through GoGo (Granny) Support program. They have a Respite Unit and prevention programs,” she says.
As Jenkins says on the store’s website, “Our mission is to bring to others a love of handcrafted art, love of the sustainable earth, and a love of helping our neighbors. These works of art connect distant peoples and cultures, in ways only a Love Travels Import can.”
Love Travels Imports is located at 19452 Livernois. You can schedule an appointment or curbside pick-up at https://calendly.com/info-love.
Love Travels brings new experiences to Avenue of Fashion during pandemic added by M Lapham on
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