When the pandemic started, Aimee Terravechia, owner of Catchpenny, found that people were apprehensive about buying second-hand goods.
By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative
Aimee Terravechia, owner and creative director at Catchpenny in Alton, found that people were less interested in buying used items because of worries about virus transmission, so she pivoted to selling new handmade goods. (Courtesy photo).
Aimee Terravechia, owner and creative director at Catchpenny in Alton had been in business less than a year when the pandemic hit. She had opened the home goods store hoping to help breathe life into retail in downtown Alton, which she felt had been a drive-through town for people heading deeper into the Lake’s Region.
“There’s not much in downtown Alton,” Terravechia said.
Catchpenny sold handmade and vintage goods, most of them made, sourced or restored by Terravechia and her husband. Providing a sustainable shopping option was a top priority for the business.
At first, Catchpenny had a warm welcome from locals and tourists alike. But as soon as reports of the coronavirus began circulating — even before the state shut down — Terravechia noticed that people were less willing to buy vintage or used goods.
“People were getting nervous,” she said. “There’s only so much you can know about an item, and the virus was so new.”
Before that, vintage items made up about half of sales at Catchpenny. Suddenly, that revenue stream all but disappeared. The whole environment at the store, which invited customers to have a hands-on shopping experience, seemed at odds with the pandemic.
“Everything is very touchable and textural,” Terravechia said.
With the pandemic coming closer and closer to home, that was no longer desirable.
“You can’t really sanitize a second-hand basket,” she said.
When the stay at home order took effect, Catchpenny shut down and Terravechia used the time to build a website and push e-commerce, with curbside pickup and local delivery. She also took a hard look at the mission of the store, recognizing that it might be a long time before people were comfortable buying second hand. Today, 90% of the items in Catchpenny are handmade and small batch items. Terravechia and her husband couldn’t keep up with making enough inventory themselves, so they partnered with other creatives locally and throughout the country.
That forced Terravechia to rethink the mission of her store. Initially, the store was focused on sustainable home decor and gifts. Demand for vintage items — a very sustainable product source — was down, so Terravechia began to think about the other ways that Catchpenny could benefit communities in Alton and beyond.
“We started pulling in vendors that do something good for their communities,” she said. “We tweaked what our mission was, and used that as a way to refocus.”
Along the way there were some hiccups. Locals — the majority of shoppers during the winter — weren’t buying refurbished items, which meant that Terravechia had little furniture and other items in stock when seasonal residents came looking for them. She also had to balance her price points, hours and service to satisfy both types of clients.
“We have to meet the needs of those two very different customer bases,” Terravechia said.
However, she’s also seen some blending between her two types of clients. More seasonal residents have decided to settle long term in Alton. Even those who went home for the colder months did their holiday shopping with Catchpenny, showing support from afar.
Terravechia has seen the demographics of her shoppers change, and out-of-town residents are bringing higher expectations for their retail experience.
“I’m excited to see how that plays out, and a little nervous,” she said.
Sub-par internet and frequent outages affect her ability to serve her customers and meet those expectations sometimes, however.
“That’s been really frustrating as a small business owner,” she said. “It makes it hard to stay relevant. It’s kind of a desert when it comes to data access.”
Today, Catchpenny looks different from the business that Terravechia envisioned when she opened her doors, but she believes that the changes have strengthened the business.
“We changed top to bottom,” she said. “Every business owner should do this at about the one-year mark.”
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.