Bella Vita, located on 6th St in downtown Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS -- With the exception of the now ubiquitous sign telling customers to put on a mask before entering and the bottle of hand sanitizer just inside the door, Bella Vita looks much the same from the outside as it did a year ago. Inside, upbeat oldies music softly fills the quiet spaces and incense and candles scent the air. "We try to keep a fun vibe," says Brandy Thomason McNair, owner of Bella Vita Jewelry. The effort is apparent in the carefully curated items - books and crystals, incense and craft kits, tea and home goods, and an array of unique jewelry including Brandy's own designs.
Before Covid-19 started causing temporary shut downs, the shop website only showcased the original pieces. But Brandy and her team have since updated it to include every item in the shop. Bags of online orders ready to be picked up or packed up for shipping fill several shelves behind the counter. Her approach to social media has also become more thoughtful, her focus shifted to a desire to uplift. She initially expressed guilt over continuing to post and promote, fearing it might be insensitive, but asked her customers and they said 'keep sharing what you do!'
"When I was younger and more naive, I had this idea like 'oh, beautiful design leads to beautiful lives!'" says Brandy. But the customers who engage with her now more active social media feed, as well as those who come into the sunny shop in person, would seem to agree. While her wholesale business has dropped over the past year, retail sales have increased, as well as her follower count.
Kandy White, owner of Yarn Kandy, shares patterns with her Facebook followers while surrounded with yarn
At the end of March 2020, when people still believed that the pandemic would be over soon and had grand plans for everything they could accomplish while being stuck at home, some turned naturally to knitting. And while Kandy White initially started doing a daily Facebook live, sharing a few pattern ideas and putting together yarn combinations, as a way to stay connected with her customers, it's now become a part of her routine.
"People used to feed off of what other people were doing at the table," says Kandy White, who's owned Yarn Kandy for 5 years. "The table" sits in the middle of the shop, surrounded enticingly by cubbies of colorful yarn and chairs usually filled with happy crafters, discussing their projects and life in general. Now the chairs are draped with samples from this morning's Live and the table is buried under yarn from the pairings Kandy has put together to recommend to her customers. She photographs the kits and shares them on her Facebook page, also setting aside new yarn to photograph so that she can add it to her new website.
Her enthusiasm, beautiful color pairings, and commitment to keeping her wares available to her customers have kept the business afloat, and she says she'll be keeping the website and the Live videos. In store sales have overall continued to exceed online ones, a couple of customers coming in while I was there to choose a specific color in person. Mr Beasley, the shop yorkie, greets them with a wag of his tail and rolls over for a tummy rub. Some things just can't be done through a screen.
Brandy Thomason McNair, owner of Bella Vita Jewelry, assists a customer
According to a poll conducted by the US Chamber of Commerce, woman-owned businesses have been hit especially hard during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their results show that while prior to the pandemic, 60% of woman businesses owners would characterize their business's health as "good" (as contrasted with 67% of men business owners), mid-pandemic numbers have dropped to 47% for women - but only dropped 5% to 62% for men.
While Brandy applied for and received a PPP loan for Bella Vita Jewelry, which allowed her to retain her employees and continue working, Kandy sent her sole employee home and took on more work herself. "Business isn't horrific, but it isn't good either," Kandy White, owner of Yarn Kandy, says. "Everything I never wanted to do, I'm doing."
But they're both determined to keep going. Making plans for the future, continuing to apply the changes they've implemented and open to new things, hope still has a foothold. "I'm looking forward to spring," says Brandy.
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