When most Vermont businesses shut down at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in mid-March, Nate Cochran had “a lot of sleepless nights” wondering how — or if — he was going to reopen his three outdoor stores in Morrisville, Enosburg Falls and Newport.
A little over three months later, though, Cochran is faced with another challenge: finding enough inventory to meet an unprecedented rise in demand for outdoor equipment at his store, The Great Outdoors.
“We have been crazy busy,” Cochran said.
Outdoor stores across the state have been unable to meet the demand for boating, camping and fishing equipment. The boom in sales is an unexpected countercyclical boost amid the global economic downturn.
At Umiak Outdoor Outfitters — an outdoor adventure store that sells kayaks, canoes and accessories at its Stowe and Williston locations — “it’s a flatout gangbuster,” according to longtime retail manager Joe Henry.
Henry said Umiak’s May retail sales were up by a factor of five compared to last year.
“We’re dancing everywhere we can to try to find product to bring in the store because the demand is there,” he said.
Henry said he was “not sure exactly what was going to happen” when the store was forced to shut down, and then move to curbside pickup. But since the store reopened, boat sales have been at an all-time high thanks to both locals and out-of-staters who are planning to spend the summer in Vermont, Henry said.
“We kept thinking that after a couple weeks it would die down, and that was not the case,” he said. “It’s still running full blast.”
At Outdoor Gear Exchange, Church Street’s largest outdoor store, bike and boat sales have been up, according to Mike Donohue, one of the store’s co-owners. Bike sales have also been up at other shops across the state during the pandemic.
Still, Donohue said it has been a “challenging time” for Outdoor Gear Exchange given the store’s many different departments and the loss of several big weekends — including graduations and the Vermont City Marathon — due to the virus.
Cochran, The Great Outdoors store owner, said he has also been short on supply of ammunition as gun sales have spiked at stores across Vermont during the pandemic. In March, more federal background checks were conducted in the state than any other month on record.
Kevin Lothian, the owner of Boat Headquarters, which sells and services motorboats in Swanton, said he was caught by surprise when business started booming at the end of the shutdown. Lothian said he’s “never seen sales so good” in his 27 years owning the store.
“Myself and my son have been working seven days a week for a long time just trying to please as many customers as we can,” Lothian said. “Even if we work seven days a week, we’re not going to please everybody because there’s just not enough hours in the day to make it happen.”
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