Making it work: Mountain Brook merchants using every tool to reach, support customers during pandemic

Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce President Tonya Jones recently called the city’s small businesses “the heart of our community.”

In mid-March, however, the COVID-19 pandemic forced non-essential businesses in Jefferson County to close.

It took courage for merchants to fight through the depressing early days of the closure and find a path forward.

“I recall turning out the lights, and literally it was like a movie,” said Katie Smith, owner of Please Reply, a stationery and gift shop in Crestline Village with 11 full- or part-time employees. “It was sad. It was emotional.”

The pandemic’s uncertainty made things worse. “I felt like just the unknown was hard,” Smith said.

Wesley Lassen, owner of The Cook Store on Cahaba Road, agrees. “It’s scary,” she said. “I cried. Like what is going to happen here? But then you just tough it up and say, ‘I’m going to make this work.’”

Lassen and other merchants did everything they could to make their businesses accessible to customers.

They used new methods, or ones they had employed only sparingly, including delivery, curbside pickup and social media.

They took advantage of some of the steps taken by the city of Mountain Brook to help businesses.

They also networked and supported each other.

But perhaps most important, they found tremendous support from their customers.

“We live in a wonderful community with wonderful people who really support the small businesses,” Lassen said in April.

STAYING ENGAGED

Lassen said she talked to Bezshan Dolata-badi, co-owner of the BPrince clothing store at Lane Parke, in the early days of the pandemic, and they inspired each other to fight.

“We were really not going to let this stop us,” Lassen said.

“We helped each other a lot,” said Dolata-badi, who eagerly followed Lassen’s posts on social media as she continued to promote her products.

“There were some stores ... that just shut down and put their head in the sand, so seeing her posting inspired us every day,” Dolatabadi said.

Businesses also partnered for joint promotions. Mon Ami, a children’s boutique in Crestline Village, did a promotion with Sugar, a candy shop, during the #ReopenMB event in June.

Table Matters, a gift shop, and Mountain Brook Creamery did a joint promotion on Instagram in June called "Puzzles and a Pint.”

ADAPT AND SURVIVE

Lassen, like many other local merchants, used every tool at her disposal.

“I’m working social media everyday to give people ideas of what they might need or want to buy as gifts,” she said in April. “I am FaceTiming, texting and emailing pictures. I offer curbside pickup, free delivery within the area and shipping via UPS.”

Social media “does not come to me naturally,” Lassen said, but she found success by being “a real person” and using Instagram or Facebook to make “a connection personally, whether I know you or not.”

“I decided I could talk on social media just like I could talk to you if you were standing in front of me,” she said.

Lassen also did more than merely feature products, she said. “‘I’ve also got a great recipe that you can use that cookie sheet for.”

Smith relied on Facebook and particularly Instagram, which allowed customers to see items such as graduation gifts “instantly,” she said.

Please Reply also began offering curbside pickup and “definitely increased our sales on the internet from all the years past,” Smith said.

Dolatabadi, who operates BPrince with his wife, Andrea, and his sister, Simin Regina, said they only began selling online in summer 2019.

“It was perfect timing,” he said, noting that online sales “really took off during COVID-19.”

Dolatabadi said they also called, emailed and texted customers each day, often sending them pictures of new garments, and presented a daily fashion show on social media.

Brandon Loper and Trent Stewart, co-owners of Golden Age Wine on Culver Road, adapted by putting all of their retail wine selections — about 750 varieties — online.

“You can shop our website and do curbside pickup [and] you can also get cheese and charcuterie boards to go curbside,” Loper said.

SUPPORTING BUSINESS

The city of Mountain Brook made efforts to aid local businesses during the pandemic.

In May, the City Council voted to help restaurants more easily expand their use of sidewalk dining and to temporarily designate a few parking spaces on most blocks in the villages for curbside delivery for restaurants and retailers.

“If there was ever a time when we need to support our businesses it would be now,” Mayor Stewart Welch said.

On May 26, the council granted a request by Loper and Stewart to use some parking spaces in front of their establishment in the afternoon and evening to increase their seating capacity, since they’re required to keep their tables at least 6 feet apart due to COVID-19 health guidelines.

Golden Age added five “beer garden-style” tables holding six people each, in addition to some sidewalk seating, Loper said.

In June, the council granted a similar request for Maurice Papapietro of Brick & Tin.

The chamber is also taking donations for the Mountain Brook Merchant Relief Fund through a recently created nonprofit.

KEEPING CLEAN

Mountain Brook business owners are working hard to follow state and county health guidelines during COVID-19.

“We’ve always cleaned our store, but now it’s a totally different level of cleaning,” Smith said.

On June 29, the Mountain Brook City Council mandated that businesses require patrons to wear face coverings — as ordered by the Jefferson County Health Officer — or risk having their city business license revoked.

Lassen supports the ordinance. “We all need to protect each other, so I’m on board 100%, and I hate the mask as much as everybody else,” she said.

Loper said he and Stewart are “thankful” for the mask ordinance. “It’s helpful to reinforce them so that we don’t necessarily have to do that,” he said.

A NEW WAY TO SHOP

In April, Lassen said curbside pickup and other techniques represented a “new way to shop.”

“I think people are attached to their phones and computers, because they’re staying in,” she said in July.

Smith agrees that some of the changes in shopping during the pandemic will remain. “I think curbside and delivery are here to stay,” she said.

“We’re still doing anything that people need us to do if they don’t want to come in,” Lassen said, citing curbside pickup and sending pictures of gifts to customers.

She’ll also continue her social media, including recipes. “I’ve had people stop me on the street and say, ‘I love your social media,’ so the pressure is on,” she said, laughing.

FEELING THE LOVE

Smith said her customers provided the critical support she needed, often ordering items just to help the store.

“They kept us going, because every day we were doing curbside pickup and had two or three sheets full of orders every day,” she said.

“It makes me emotional thinking about it,” Smith said.

“No one wants the smalls to fail,” Lassen said, noting that the businesses in the villages are not chain stores. “I think our community really appreciates that.”

“I know my family is certainly trying to buy more from locally owned shops than we do from the big-box stores,” added Aja Powanda, owner of Mon Ami.

OPTIMISM

Lassen said she felt “optimistic” about the fate of most of Mountain Brook’s small businesses. “I think the community is trying to do their part,” she said.

She said some businesses — such as clothing retailers — are probably hurting, but that she feels fortunate. “I’m in a business that people need right now,” she said.

The restaurant business is a tough sector right now, Loper said.

“The health department qualifies us as a restaurant, so I’ll just say being in the restaurant business, I think it’s very challenging,” he said.

Like a lot of establishments, Golden Age received a federal loan under the Paycheck Protection Program, allowing it to bring back its staff, but the PPP ran out in May, Loper said.

“We’re doing maybe 35%, 40%, of the bar business that we were doing,” he said. “People are very cautious about going out, plus it’s the summer.”

“We feel fortunate that we have a retail side to our business,” Loper said.

Smith discussed the common spirit that binds the businesses in Mountain Brook.

“The merchants are a family, and we don’t want to see another business struggling or going out of business, so I feel like we are kind of in this together,” she said.

“We are all going to just work hard right now and get through it, but the sun is going to come up tomorrow and the next day,” Smith said. “We will make it through this for sure.”

“You have to be accessible to your customer at all times, and you have to dig in and work hard,” Lassen said.

To donate to the Mountain Brook Merchant Relief Fund, go to onemb.swell.gives.