From supply chain issues to worker shortages, many retailers hope the 2021 holiday shopping season provides some kind of relief to a year filled with a number of hardships associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It's hit all across the board at different times," said Minnesota Retailers Association president Bruce Nustad. "Small businesses are really looking forward to a good weekend this weekend relative to customers turning out at the stores."
Nustad, who spoke Friday morning with WCCO Radio's Mike Max on the WCCO Radio Morning News, said certain business sectors suffered more when it came to the curveballs thrown at them this year.
"If you were shutdown a little bit during the pandemic and tended to have some supply chain issues, I think it's some of the smaller retailers hoping to have a good recovery right now."
Saturday, November 27 marks Small Business Saturday. In 2020, Americans spent nearly $20 billion, with online shopping making up 56 percent of shoppers making a purchase online.
"The Minnesota consumer is fantastic," Nustad said. "They will do some online shopping, maybe shop some national stores, and they'll also look to their local community. One of the things the pandemic maybe taught people is you have to support those stores in your community."
When it comes to overall holiday success for retailers, Nustad says that while Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are all good measuring sticks, they don't tell the whole story.
"It's fun to talk about, but when you look at consumers over the last couple of years, they sort of spread out their sales and started shopping a little earlier," he said. "When we look at how the year-end looks for retailers, we'll look about four weeks and a week past New Years to tell us how things really went."