The Hannah Grimes marketplaces is preparing for a long reduction in retail sales.

By Kelly Burch

Granite State News Collaborative

Before the pandemic, between 50 and 100 customers came to the Hannah Grimes Marketplace on Main Street in Keene each day, perusing items made by local artisans. 

When retail shopping came to a sudden halt, Molly Taflas, manager of the Hannah Grimes Marketplace, had to find a way to keep sales going in the shop, which sells everything from pottery to jewelry to food and wine, all made within 150 miles of Keene. Usually, customers come in looking for a gift or just to see what catches their eye. 

“It’s really hard to recreate that experience online,” Taflas said. 

While ordering a specific item online is easy, browsing is not. That’s especially true with artisan products, where each batch might be slightly different in texture, color or taste. 

Still, Teflas decided she needed to try. The marketplace had revamped its website in 2019, so Teflas knew the store had the means to support online shopping, but she also knew it would be impossible to list all of the 7,000 products that are for sale in the store. 

“Trying to navigate getting that up online is just not possible,” she said. 

 

Instead, she focused on giving a representation of the store, listing a few samples from each of the store’s departments online. 

“We wanted to give folks a little taste of the kind of food we have, the kind of pottery we have, the kind of jewelry we have,” Taflas said. Customers could order the listed items for curbside pickup or delivery. 

Next, Taflas created a gallery of images from the store, with sweeping shots of product displays. 

“That would help folks understand the look and feel of the store, when you would normally walk in,” she said. 

After browsing, shoppers could book a half-hour session to shop with Taflas guiding them via video chat, showing them the products up close. 

“I had the store lit up, the soft music on, and everything ready to roll as if you were walking into the store,” Taflas said. 

About 25 people arranged calls over the course of a month, Taflas said. Overall, customers enjoyed the experience. 

“It’s been really cool, and it’s something that we’re going to offer forever,” she added. 

The efforts made a difference. In April 2020, the Hannah Grimes Marketplace did 37% of the sales that it did in April 2019, despite having no in-person shopping. 

When the governor allowed retail establishments to re-open with restrictions, in mid-May the marketplace opened for shopping by appointment only, with three customers allowed in the space at one time. 

While the store is a year-round establishment, it is particularly busy during graduation season, leaf-peeping season in the fall, and in December, when the store does 30% of annual sales in the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Taflas expects the pandemic to affect retail throughout that cycle. 

“I foresee this being a few years to get back to where we were with in-store sales,” she said. “So how do we ramp up in store, but not lose the traction from online? It’s going to be this real big balance in making sure both of them are really strong.”

For now, she’s focused on keeping the Hannah Grimes Center at the forefront of people’s minds. 

“I need to remind customers that we’re still here. Children are still being born and birthdays are still happening,” she said. “For a while, a lot of those efforts were about engagement. So much of it was about reminding customers that we’re here and making it clear the ways in which they can still shop with us.”

As part of that push, Taflas has been posting more on Facebook and Instragram, and experimenting with paid ads on social media. She said that there have been lots of responses to those posts. 

“It’s proof that people really care about shopping locally these days,” Taflas said. “There’s always been a beautiful ‘buy local’ movement in this community, but I have never seen it like this. I think it’s a whole new rebirth of shopping locally and why it’s important for our economy.”

Editor’s Note: Molly Taflas’s last day as manager at the Hannah Grimes Marketplace was May 19. Her departure is unrelated to the pandemic. Previous manager Denise Meadows will step in while the marketplace looks for a new director, and assistant manager Emily Russman will be handling the day-to-day running of the marketplace, including video shopping. 

This story is part of the 50 Businesses, 50 Solutions series, shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative, that aims to highlight how business leaders across the state, from mom and pop shops, to large corporations have adapted to meet the challenges and disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus in the hopes others may be able to replicate these ideas and innovations. Tell us your story here. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.