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CORONAVIRUS DISCUSSION 😷

We recognize the unprecedented situation hospital gift shops are in right now, with some having already closed, others still open, or seeing reduced hours. All are trying to balance the unique circumstances inherent by your location in a medical facilities. We work to provide a place where managers can come together, gain a sense of community, and exchange valuable insights from one another through this time.

Click the orange comment button here to share with the community :

How will you handle seasonal inventory that you were unable to sell?
What strategies will you use to drive sales when your shop reopens?
Is your shop serving a different function during this time?
When do you plan to start buying and placing orders again?
Are you working in another department while your shop is closed?
Are you working from home?
What is your greatest concern right now?

We had over 30 comments last month regarding the Coronavirus pandemic and how it is impacting your gift shops. Thank you to everyone who commented and shared their experience!

Join Cindy and a group of panelists, tomorrow, April 16, for a special COVID-19 Webinar for Hospital Gift Shop Managers! Click to listen.

**Once the page opens, click the image at the top to view the webinar.

Where to start? Returning to your gift shop after the coronavirus

by Cindy Jones, Publisher and Editor 💮

So much has changed in such a short time. I have been self-isolating since March 10. I hope you have also! I think that after we overcome this pandemic, the world of retailing may not be the same. I don’t know what it will look like, but I think the way we offer retail services in our hospitals will be different.

Today, I invite you to hit the comment button and share your struggles  – and triumphs! – during the coronavirus pandemic. We’re in this together.  

Below is the valuable feedback readers shared in last month’s discussion on the impact coronavirus is having on your gift shops.

SHOP HOURS OR CLOSINGS
The majority of paid gift shop managers were instructed to close their shop indefinitely and stay home. Most hospitals are not allowing visitors. 

We had to close the Gift Shop per our Executive Team Leaders on March 24. I’m wondering what everyone else, that has had to close, is doing with your Easter product, especially Easter candy? My thought is to hold it over until next year since I hadn’t had it out long enough to sell much of it. I’m pretty sure we won’t be open before Easter at this point. We plan to move to a new location in August and will have limited storage at the new location. – Vickie Bailey, Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital. 90 beds. April 1, 2020

But, a few managers reported that they are still reporting to work as usual and the shop is open. Others have been told to reduce their gift shop hours. A small number reported that they are working from home. It appears that most volunteer shop managers and volunteer clerks were put on LOA status (Leave of Absence). Those that continue to work full-time are busy sanitizing and cleaning all areas of their shops, pricing and displaying merchandise, and writing orders.

I am in the process of removing all the Easter merchandise, plush, etc. and storing them for next year. I plan to keep the spring items in the shop. BTW, we have been closed since March 10th. All volunteers on LOA. As the only paid employee among our volunteers I am performing all tasks that our volunteers were doing, mail, surveys, front desk, etc. Stay well everyone. – Sarah F. March 30, 2020

Some shops are providing limited services (for hospital employees only) using email, phone or pickup orders. A few shops have even allowed a limited number of hospital employees into their shops for a short period of time.

Our hospital gift shops have been closed indefinitely . . .I am in the office working for today . . .How do, what does this look like when we get called back? The shop is stocked full of Easter merchandise and treats . . .Save it or try to sell it? – Brenda Deneau. March 18, 2020

I’m sure some are feeling a bit helpless, lost, and not sure where to start!

The emerging COVID-19 crisis made March a rough month financially for hospitals around the country. While revenues decreased, expenses did not. Procedures that help generate income for the hospital, like surgery and imaging, have declined significantly. Some are looking at 20-40% drop in overall revenue.

Healthcare systems are trying to avoid layoffs and furloughs. In one hospital, an operating room nurse is now running the hospitals’ gift shops, which are usually operated by volunteers.

So, where do you start when you return? Here’s a checklist for how to get your shop back up and running.

• Your primary focus is on the safety of your customers and hospital employees.
• Clean counters and doors inside and out and wipe off the credit and debit card machines.
• Have gloves and wipes for those at the counters and at registers.
• You need to have cleaning and sanitizing schedules in place, 24-7.
• You may have to shorten your shop hours in order to clean as thoroughly as possible at night.
• Remember to have everyone maintain ‘social distancing’.

What about all those boxes of unpacked merchandise in your stockroom? They need to be checked in, priced, and displayed in the shop?

You will most likely need to pack Easter merchandise away for next year (except Easter candy). Check it in, price it, submit the invoice for payment and repack it for Easter 2021. Place a “List of the Contents” sheet on top of the box. Then, at the time of your physical inventory, all you have to do is record the totals taped to the box.

Go directly to your files and open your ‘On Order’ sheet. Do you still want it? If not, cancel it!

Make up Lost Sales
It will be a challenge to make up for sales lost during the coronavirus shutdown. You will need to adjust your projected 2020 sales goals. Once your shop is up and running, take a hard look at your existing inventory and mark it down if needed. In this new economy it will have to work doubly hard to get sold. It is time to focus on new and innovative ways to generate sales.

While you were cleaning your shop top to bottom, you probably came across old, outdated merchandise that needs to go on sale. What do you do with it? Work to weed out those losers!

Sticker Sale
Mark down items using medical theme stickers (or, alternatively, colored dots):
    Band-Aid = 20% off
    Doctors Bag = 30% off
    Medicine = 40% off
Put red stickers on just a few items that are ‘free with a purchase’.  

Buying Product
As strange as it may seem, this is the time to begin buying Fall, Halloween and Christmas merchandise for 2021. It’s likely that vendors will be lowering their minimums following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Several gift markets have been cancelled or rescheduled for summer. View our Gift Market Calendar for cancellations and new dates. Check back regularly for changes. 

Finally, we salute the healthcare workers – our valued customers and friends –  facing the frontline everyday. You are our heroes and cherished now, more than ever.  Thank you!

CALENDAR

GIFT MARKETS

STATE AUXILIARY CONFERENCES

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Preparing your POS and resuming sales after the coronavirus

by Alex Overly, i3Verticals

If your gift shop was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a few steps that you should take to start business back up on the right foot. 

First, clean your checkout station. Reach out to your POS vendor for the best methods for cleaning.

Once you have cleaned, power cycle your POS station. If it was off during the shutdown, start the station. If it was left on, it’s probably a good idea to restart it. Once your station is powered on, log into your Point of Sale system and verify that all peripheral devices work, like your receipt printer, cash drawer, and credit card terminal. Test a credit card and cash transaction, making sure that the drawer pops open, the credit card processes, and receipts print. This will ensure that you are aware of any potential problems before opening your doors.

Also, start fresh for your first day back. Make sure you didn’t leave a drawer session open. Consider running through your end of day process to ensure that you have a clean slate and no open transactions.

Now, you are ready to open your doors, but you may also consider running a promotion to draw people back into your store.

Operating and Sales Reports

When you come back to your store after some time off, it’s a good idea to reacquaint yourself with some important inventory and sales numbers. Here are a couple questions and what kind of reports to run in order to get the current and right information.

1. Do I have too much stock?
   • Run an inventory report broken down by category or department
   • Run a sales report broken down by category for this time last year
   • Compare these reports to see if you have too much of a certain kind of item (e.g. Easter merchandise)
2. Do I have to little stock?
   • Run an inventory report broken down by category or department
   • Run a sales report broken down by category for this time last year
   • Compare these reports to see if you have too little of a certain kind of item (e.g. perishables – keep in mind some food/drink items may have expired during the shutdown)
3. How much do I need to make up to ‘meet or beat’ to last year’s sales?
   • Run a sales report for the year to date (January 2020 – Today)
   • Run a sales report for last year to date (January 2019 – April 2019)
   • Compare the results to see how much you are behind
4. How is my profitability?
   • Run a sales report for the year to date (January 2020 – Today)
   • Run a sales report for last year to date (January 2019 – April 2019)
   • Compare the results to see your profit this year compared to last year.

Alec Overly is a National Account Executive, i3 POS at i3 Verticals. aoverly@i3Verticals.com 734-259-3679 | 734-674-3504

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Setup for Success: Reopening your gift shop after COVID-19

by Anne M. Obarski

Never did the business world ever predict such a global disruption as the one we are all experiencing now! I am sure that no matter what the size or location of your hospital, there is a high level of disruption in it, and will be for the foreseeable future. 

As you look at your gift shop, whether shuttered or partially open, remember that you have and always will, provide a service to the people and employees who walk through the doors of your hospital.  We are all waiting to hear some glimmer of hope and prediction of a time when slowly and carefully, we are able to connect with our customers in a new way. 

The shops who will survive this disruption are actively working on the future look of their businesses and aren’t dwelling in somber silence and fear.

As a gift shop manager, here are several things to address before your doors open again.

• Stay in touch with your volunteers.  Be a strong leader and continue to keep them informed and uplifted, whether or not they are still physically in the gift shop or even if they are volunteering elsewhere in the hospital.
• Look at every piece of merchandise in your gift shop with a critical eye.  Too much merchandise in one classification and too little in another?
• Buyers at a recent conference were being very careful with their purchases and even discussed being proactive about holding to ship dates on orders as they watch inventory levels.
• What are the top 3 areas in your gift shop that are the foundation of your business?  Consider those items that you never want to be out of stock on and that propel your business on a daily basis. 
• Go back to the core of your business and make sure it is strong and solid.  The other items in your gift shop will sell when this is all behind us.
• Stay in touch with your vendors.  They are hurting too.  Cancelled orders or no orders at all hit them just as hard.  Build on your past vendor relationships. You are not their only account and they can only do so much to get new merchandise to you, cancel future orders or take back damages. Be easy to work with, appreciative of the little things they can do and use them as a “sounding board” for what to do going forward.

Whether you have been helping in other areas of your hospital or trying to limp along in your short-staffed gift shop, your dedication is appreciated by so many people.  Your resilience and determination to look forward with new goals will help as you embrace this “disruption” in a positive way. 

Anne works with organizations and businesses who want to become contagious on purpose!  She provides strategic “contagious” ideas that will inspire your customers to refer others along the way! All as a result of their…infectious, enviable, repeatable, and remarkable, customer service. Contact her at anne@merchandiseconcepts.com or visit merchandiseconcepts.com

A BIG SHOUT OUT to a well-known vendor, snoozies!^®  and owner, Marshall Bank, for donating over 10,000 MASKS to multiple hospitals across country over the past month!

To date, snoozies!/Buyers Direct has donated 10,000 respirator masks to hospitals around the USA. They want to help others “Give the Gift of Protection” to medical staff, doctors, and nurses in need by facilitating additional orders. Cost: $2.00/mask (includes duty and freight) + 7% import duty.  Sold 960 masks/case, packed in 24 individual boxes containing 40 masks.  ***NOTE: The manufacturer, Homar BioTechnology, is not an approved FDA manufacturer yet, but they do appear to meet China (KN95) and EU (FFP2) standards. Contact mbank@deltaforce.net for details.

DISCUSSION

HOW IS THE CORONAVIRUS AFFECTING YOUR GIFT SHOP?

As of today (3/16), our gift is closed indefinitely. We are sad. – Melodie Christal

As of 3/10 our gift shop was closed indefinitely due to the virus. Nothing we can do!! – Nan Healy

Our gift shop has been closed down, and we have no idea for how long. – Nancy Klein

All of our volunteers have been placed on LOA. I am opening the shop 10-2 M-F and paid staff 11-4 and 1-5 on weekends. I am responsible for all vending services as well so I am spending the rest of each day ordering, stocking, etc. We feel this is probably short term as we expect to be closed at some point. Sales are only on snacks, drinks, and candy so sales are definitely lower. – Anonymous

I am operating our gift shop on a limited schedule, as I am the only paid staff member and our volunteers are also on LOA. Planning to sanitize while I’m up there. Hot spots daily (if not multiple times per day). Going to see how traffic is this week and determine if I need to stay open next week as well. We have strict visitor limitations in place, expecting mainly employee traffic. – Anonymous

Our Gift shop is also closed. Volunteers are on LOA and as manager I am the only employee in Gift Shop. I am taking this time to do stock work and assist at Information Desk as needed. I plan to donate and deliver candy and popcorn to our hardworking clinical staff. – Anonymous

Our volunteers has been asked to stay home for their safety. That leaves me with 3 paid employees. We have a pharmacy in our gift shop so we cannot close, so, we have changed our hours to match the pharmacy. So, we are closing earlier Monday through Saturday and now are closed on Sunday until this passes. Stay safe everyone. – Kim DeBord

As of Saturday our Gift shop is closed. We have Easter and Spring clothes to sell – Sandy Eiffert

Members of the community should not come to the hospital unless there is a medical reason for the visit. This includes coming to the hospital solely to eat in the cafeteria or shop in the gift shop. – Janet Long, Public Relations Manager at Morris Hospital, IL

Our gift shop is closed until further notice. – Anonymous

Our shop is closed to walk in traffic. We have posted on the door and hospital site we will accept orders email, fax and by phone. They can come to the door and pick up. Only credit card and payroll payments. We will continue to accept phone orders for patient gifts. We have redone our windows to better view our products. We hope this is just for a couple weeks. Good Luck everyone. – Mary Claire

We are open but only with limited hours. All volunteers have been mandated to stay home. It is just me the manger and my assistant. Yes, we are sanitizing product and our store and our self’s and we are required to do so every hour! Yes they are saying they will deploy us to another department, we will not be able to work from home. The hospital is not allowing any visitors. Sales have been just for candy and snacks and only employees. – Colleen

We have reduced our hours to M-F 9-5 and Saturday 12-4. We don’t have any Covid-19 positive tests in our County yet. I’m sure as soon as we do, we’ll be shut down. Volunteers, at this point are able to determine for themselves if they wish to come in. – Anonymous

Our two hospital gift shops are closed indefinitely since Monday, 3/16. We only had two volunteers under the age of 60 and myself, a paid manager that would have been eligible to work. I will take this time to clean and organize our office/pricing area. I will clean and reset both shops and set up new displays. I will refresh any worn out display pieces such as repainting the racks from our fresh flower case that once the flowers were removed looked quite shabby, and not in the chic way!. I can work from home if needed, pricing smaller items, writing up future orders with catalogs or ordering online by holding the orders etc. This is a totally helpless feeling, I anxiously await our reopening! Stay healthy! – Jamie Lee Hernandez

Dignity Health Central Coast limits their hospital visitations due to flu and COVID-19 concerns All hospital gift shops are closed until further notice. Washington Health System is suspending some services, including closing the gift shop.  – Cindy Jones

Has your gift shop closed or reduced hours? Has you volunteer department closed? If so, are you as a gift shop manager able to work from home? If your hospital does close the gift shop will they deploy you to another department? Thanks! – Colleen DeSimone, Gift Shop Coordinator,Orange Regional Medical Center Gift Shop

We have been closed for over a week now as we’re staffed entirely by volunteers who are not allowed at the hospital. All visitors except end of life situations or parents of young patients are banned. We distributed the flowers, our only perishable item, to patients who would enjoy them before closing our doors. Our health fair, regional auxiliary meeting and volunteer appreciation lunch are all cancelled and we have no idea when we will re-open. Our hospital is a small rural one with 19 beds. – Sandra Oldfield

We have been closed since Monday. The President felt that if someone who was infected came in contact with multiple items it would be very difficult to disinfect everything they touched. I sent out a mass email to all employees and let them know that if they wanted to buy anything I can get it together and just charge their badge and meet them at the back door. No need to step foot into the shop. It’s working out really well. – Anonymous

What is everyone doing about all of their spring merchandise, just taking a loss?  I am in the process of removing all the Easter merchandise, plush, etc. and storing them for next year. I plan to keep the spring items in the shop. BTW, we have been closed since March 10th. All volunteers on LOA. As the only paid employee among our volunteers I am performing all tasks that our volunteers were doing, mail, surveys, front desk, etc. Stay well everyone. – Sarah F

We are still open, with only two paid employees disinfecting everything we can. We are only selling drinks, food and candy also. – Anonymous

Our gift shop closed officially 3/17 after all the volunteers called off. I am the only paid employee and am currently working from home because I have a sinus infection and am not allowed back into the hospital until I am 100%. Once I am 100% I will be allowed back into the hospital to work on various projects in the hospital and help in other areas where there are shortages. I feel helpless being at home and know that under any other situation I would have already been back to work with the tail end of an infection. Stay safe everyone. – Anonymous

We have a paid staff person in our gift shop so between her and a few die-hard volunteers, it has been open with reduced hours. Our volunteer services is not paused except for the teen program. We will keep it open as long as we can for our staff. We have been told that all staff are essential and no one will be staff reduced at this time, we will be deployed to help elsewhere. – Nichole

Are any of you doing delivery service to hospital employees in various departments and to patient floors? If so, how is that working? – Cindy Jones, Editor

So we have been closed since 3/13. Volunteers are on LOA. I am still here because we do flowers. The shop is closed. I have tried to let employees know that we have gifts if they need them. Very sad. No traffic on our main street. Stay Healthy! – Anonymous

We had to close the Gift Shop per our Executive Team Leaders on March 24. I’m wondering what everyone else, that has had to close, is doing with your Easter product, especially Easter candy? My thought is to hold it over until next year since I hadn’t had it out long enough to sell much of it. I’m pretty sure we won’t be open before Easter at this point. We plan to move to a new location in August and will have limited storage at the new location. – Vickie Bailey, Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital. 90 beds

FROM CINDY

Advantages of the Retail Method of Inventory Valuation
The money your customer pays at point of purchase is the retail price. The retail sales figures are the retail value of the inventory. The retail price has the profit built into it and profit occurs when an item is sold (at retail)

1. 1. Maintaining inventory figures ‘at retail’ forces the you, the retailer, to ‘think retail’.
   2. Financial statements ‘at retail’ are essential to good financial planning. Frequent calculations at both cost and retail information allows the retailer to adjust quickly to changing conditions
   3. Physical inventories taken at retail prices eliminate the costly, time-consuming job of decoding cost prices. Recording physical inventory at retail prices greatly simplifies the process and encourages a more frequent physical count of inventory.
   4. The retail method facilitates planning and control of a department or category. Sales, purchases, inventories, and price-change information are recorded by department or category and can be used to evaluate each department’’s performance.
   5. By providing a ‘book’ or Point of Sale figure for what your inventory should be on hand, the retail method allows the retailer to determine shortages each time a physical inventory is taken.

The ‘retail method’ requires continuous recording of all transactions which change the unit status of the inventory. A running total must be kept by continuously recording all merchandise data. A Point of Sale system will automatically accomplish that for you!  3/15/20

SHOP YOUR OWN SHOP

Q. Have you shopped your own shop recently? The other night I was on my way out, purse in hand, when a friend walked into the store to browse.  I walked back in and “shopped” with her through her eyes. If you are like me, all I can see when surveying the floor is what needs to be done, what is missing, what needs dusting, etc. But shopping as the customer was a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed admiring and looking at things as much as she did and it was really fun!  It was a lesson to me  – after a harried day behind the scenes, I actually left feeling very good. I realized the pleasant experience that our shop offers to hospital guests and employees. I am going to walk out and come back in wearing a consumer hat more often!  – A shop manager. 228 beds. 3/10/20

CURTAIL DEEP-DISCOUNT CUSTOMERS

Q. I assist the director of volunteer services in managing three hospital gift shops. Our largest shop at our biggest campus does quite well. We have a shop at a sister hospital that we buy for and are waiting to see how the first year went. We also have a small shop at our long-term care and rehab facility. We struggle with staffing (all volunteer) as it’s a smaller shop and is on the opposite side of town from where many of the volunteers live. Most of the customers at that location also like to “wait things out” when it comes to buying product. They will not buy it until it is deeply discounted and then complain when the merchandise isn’t changed often. We are at a loss as to what to do with this particular shop. Does anyone have any suggestions? – Shea Parazine, Volunteer Services Specialist, The Shops at Unity Health, White County Medical Center, Searcy, AR. 193 beds. 3/11/20

FROM CINDY
Sounds like hospital employees have been trained to wait for markdowns so they can get it cheaper. I suggest you don’t reduce markdowns so soon, and see who out-waits who! Of course, the danger of waiting too long is that the shop may get stuck with too much aging merchandise. That is the “just in case”  philosophy.

As retailers, we never want to disappoint the customer. We can’t bear to hear a customer say they couldn’t find what they were looking for in our shop. On the other hand, we can’t carry everything in very limited floor space. Unfortunately, some shops carry huge inventories just in case that one customer comes in. That’s called ‘just in case’ thinking and buying and it simply doesn’t work! What happens if that one customer never comes in? You now have merchandise that feels old and stale….and may never sell. 3/15/20

I too am a small community hospital and would love to get with someone to buy marked down items from. It you don’t mind sharing some information please email me. – Rhonda Hernandez. 2/25/20

I am also a small community hospital and the benefit of that is I can buy Simply Noelle marked down items and most of my customers don’t even notice it’s “last seasons” merchandise. Excellent quality at an excellent price. – Anonymous. 2/17/20

Mountain Mamas might be a good option for spring/summer clothing. – Teri Nixon. 2/16/20

A SUCCESSFUL TOTE SALE

Something that worked extremely well for us was a Tote Sale. I bought holiday totes from Burton & Burton for $1.66 each, priced them at $4.99 which is a 66.73% mark-up. The promotion is, buy a tote at $4.99 and anything you can get in the tote is 25% off.  And our pitch is “We can make anything fit in a tote.” We sold out of the totes in 2 days and I bought a lot of them.  I do a tote sale two times a year and my customers/employees can’t wait for it. Thank you so much and happy holidays. – Kim DeBord, Marketplace Manager, Riverside Medical Center, Kankakee, IL. 325 beds. 12/4/19

Just an FYI – if you’re buying something at a cost of $1.66 and selling it for $4.99, that is a 200% markup and a 67% gross margin….– Curt. 2/1/20

I tried this idea, and loved it. Our customers were loving it as well. Thanks for such a great idea. – Lisa Burney. 1/17/20