WINCHESTER — John Kline was facing an uncertain future. His sandwich shop, which he opened about two years ago, was down 40% in sales compared with last year. And things weren’t looking good.
“Just be honest with them,” Kline’s friend told him. So, he was. On his personal social media page, Kline asked those who knew him to come by Veterans Subs, have a meal, bring a friend.
The request blew up. Quickly, there were over 1,200 shares of his post and over 100 comments. Then, from others who had reposted it, hundreds more shares, hundreds more comments.
The following day, Veterans Subs sold out in a matter of four hours, with a line of customers out the door the whole time.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kline said last week. “I never really expected that type of response from the community. … Their support went beyond my wildest expectations.”
Kline is not alone in the difficulty he is facing as a small business owner.
Owners of several other locally-owned spots say sales have fallen 20% to 50% when compared with last year.
Kline, Hillary Carter of The Quirky Closet and Holly Redding of Winchester Brew Works have heard similar testimonies when talking with various colleagues in the local business scene this summer.
Redding, co-founder of the North Cameron Street brewery that opened about seven years ago, said sales are down roughly 20%. She added that last year was the “highest grossing year” in Winchester Brew Works’ history.
“The middle of summer is always a little hard,” Redding said by phone recently. “But this has been different.
“We’re still doing stuff that worked for us in the past — special events and beer releases and food trucks — but we’re just not getting the same crowd turning out. Our sales have definitely been hit pretty significantly, particularly in June and July, and I’m not really sure why that is.”
For Carter, sales at her plus size clothing boutique are down 30%.
In the five years that Carter’s boutique has been open, she has “never been down year-over-year. Then, all of a sudden in April, it was just a nosedive.” Her two other recently-opened locations, in Dulles and North Carolina, are currently paying for the expenses of her flagship store in Winchester, since they are having higher rates of success, she said.
“I don’t have any more personal money to sink into making sure this ship stays afloat because it’s been sinking since April,” Carter said.
For Kline, extending his social media plea on July 11 was not easy. Now, weeks after the initial rush, business is still going strong, and he hopes to cultivate repeat customers from those who discovered his sandwich shop through his viral request.
Kline is not the only Winchester business owner who has asked for support online, but his plea seemed particularly successful. Asked why that might be, Kline said he doesn’t exactly know. But his business’s identity is that it’s owned by a disabled veteran and donates 1% of its total yearly sales to local veterans organizations, such as Heroes on the River.
He said he is grateful and humbled by the outpouring of support for Veterans Subs and encouraged folks to “get out there and support all these local businesses.”
There just seem to be fewer customers walking through their doors, the entrepreneurs agreed.
“Anecdotally, driving past the mall or going down the walking mall on a Friday night, it is quieter than I would expect it to be,” Redding said.
Victoria Kidd Armstrong, general manager and owner of Hideaway Café on the Loudoun Street Mall, said her shop is facing an adverse year, but for different reasons.
“In an open letter to my staff in January I indicated this year will be a bumpy ride, but we are all working together to get through,” Armstrong wrote in an email to The Winchester Star. “Where we are struggling is in a different direction from lower sales and reduced consumer support. It’s with areas of business and economics, primarily.”
She went on to cite increased meals taxes, 2024 being an election year, high interest rates, inflation and overall rising expenses.
“Insurance costs are unbridled for many operators,” Armstrong wrote. “Rent is going up at an alarming rate. We still have to pay our share of permits and fees with no relief anywhere. Our already tight margins are even tighter now.
“It all adds up to creating a new level of complexity for business owners, and it’s those who can see the future hurdles and prepare to leap just in time who are really going to make it.”
The elements Armstrong mentioned are playing a role for the others, too.
“The prices are higher and it’s just economics,” Kline said. “When things go up, it gets hard on people because their pay is not going up.”
Armstrong added when consumers spend less, they are “often cutting discretionary and ‘entertainment’ spending like shopping and dining out first.”
The current rate of inflation is about 3%, which is down from 3.4% in 2023, 6.5% in 2022 and 7% in 2021, according to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, which tabulates the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Still though, prices have risen 20.8% since February 2020 — just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — according to BLS data.
Carter noted that people tend to hold onto their money due to market uncertainty in a presidential election year.
Across the United States, business owners are plagued with near-identical worries, too, according to online information.
Carter confirmed that she networks with entrepreneurs in states like California, Hawaii, North Dakota, Rhode Island and more. Many have shared that “it’s not just slow, it is dead. We are down, and not just slightly down,” Carter said.
Director of the Laurel Ridge Small Business Development Center, Christine Kriz, said earlier this year that for every $100 spent at a local establishment, about $68 stays in the local economy. And for every $100 spent at a non-local establishment, about $40 stays in the local economy.
Often, Carter noted, products will be more pricey at a mom and pop shop than they would be at a corporate retailer or big box store. But it is not without valid cause, she indicated, stressing that the majority of business owners she knows are not lining their pockets or getting rich from it.
Spending at locally-owned retailers and restaurants means getting more of an investment for your money, Carter went on to say. Yes, she said, “things might be a dollar or two more,” but those funds are staying in the area, not “going to some person in California.”
Shipping fees have almost doubled for Carter. The rent is expensive downtown. Taxes are high. Plus, she has employees who rely on their paycheck from The Quirky Closet.
Carter explained that, as the operator, she has to decide whether to eat the ever-rising costs, raise prices or do a little of both — a sentiment which Armstrong conveyed in her email, too.
“Shopping small and supporting local is a lifestyle choice,” Carter said. “You make the conscious effort because you understand the community presence that a small business has.”
“Without us, you lose what makes Winchester a special place to be,” Redding added.
