First coronavirus, then Tulip Time canceled: Holland’s businesses are facing 1-2 financial punch

HOLLAND, MI -- It’s early spring, and Boyd Feltman is winterizing his frozen yogurt shop.

His staff is down to a manager and two occasional helpers to get the yogurt machines cleaned out, sterilize the shop and do small repairs. When that work is done, the place will look brand new, but the question becomes whether any customers will see it.

This is normally the time when Feltman, owner of the Holland-based chain Peachwave, is ramping up business at his downtown Holland shop. He should be doing interviews to hire people.

His staff should be preparing for an onslaught of customers and influx of business -- typically almost 10 percent of Peachwave’s annual revenue -- during the area’s huge flower-focused festival, Tulip Time.

However, the coronavirus is hitting small businesses in the Lake Michigan community of Holland extra hard.

The infectious respiratory disease pandemic forced the cancellation of Tulip Time and restricted non-essential business activity following Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order. While restaurants and grocery stores can remain open, many business owners are choosing to close temporarily because there’s little demand for their product in a social distancing world.

Tulip Time represents the biggest annual revenue stream for many businesses in Holland. The nine-day festival, canceled for the first time in its 91-year history, was originally scheduled to begin May 2, about five weeks after the “stay home” order was issued.

Jodi Owczarski, vice president of the West Coast Chamber of Commerce, said the local business group is working with businesses to try to get them through the coronavirus pandemic and loss of customers who attend Tulip Time from across the United States and other countries.

“How can we weather this storm together and what can we do on the backside of this that would be impactful?" Owczarski said. "Certainly not to the same extent as a traditional Tulip Time would have been, but are there things that we can do to help kind of bridge that gap and get us through until the 92nd year of Tulip Time.”

Feltman is trying to find ways to adapt his business -- using insulated cups or delivery services that have coolers in their vehicles -- but for now, things are shutting down. And he, like other business owners in Holland, is bracing for the second punch in the coronavirus pandemic: The loss of Tulip Time.

For the first time in 91 years, Tulip Time won’t be bringing parades, a carnival, thousands of tourists and millions of dollars to Holland.

To call the annual tulip festival just a “festival” would be underselling it.

Lucas Grill, a 36-year-old business owner, knows Tulip Time means a lot to the Holland community and local economy. Three of his four restaurants are located in Holland.

“It’s a behemoth of a beast that just brings in so much attention and people and comradery and media and buzz," Grill said. “And when you lose that, there’s something missing in the bones of Holland, Michigan.”

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Michigan

There are massive parades, vendors in the streets, and fireworks. You can take a yoga class among the tulips, or go for a run alongside the tulips. Costumed dancers “klomp” through the streets for Dutch dancing. It’s more than a week of fun and activities for West Michigan residents and visitors.

For some small businesses in Holland, the festival can be the difference between a good year and a great year. For others, it can mean raises for their staff or the ability to expand. And for some it can them to stay open another year.

It’s an economic dynamo, and without it businesses across Holland are bracing for an uncertain future.

The biggest economic event for the city

For some businesses in Holland, Tulip Time is like their Black Friday, but with wooden shoes and dancing.

The festival brings millions of dollars to the city of just over 33,000 residents. It’s difficult to put an exact figure on the overall economic impact to the Holland area. Two separate studies on the topic have greatly varied in the economic impact, reporting $12.9 million in 2015 by the Anderson Economic Group and $48 million in 2018 by the Hope College Frost Research Center.

Tim Vagle, city of Holland Treasurer and city representative on the Tulip Time board, said the 2018 study is more reliable because there were better protocols in place for measuring the impact. It featured face-to-face interviews with attendees each day of the festival.

Regardless of the actually dollar figure, businesses certainly get a boost from Tulip Time.

Peachwave brand owner Feltman said he opened his Holland location in 2013, just a month before that year’s festival. At the time he was a franchise owner. That year he set the national record for the franchise’s highest single day sales for one of his days during the festival.

“It’s just been one of those mainstays, a 10-day period that has been the difference between doing well and absolutely thriving,” he said.

Feltman said his business makes 8 to 9 percent of its annual sales during Tulip Time.

For Grill, he had been hoping that the festival would give his new restaurant, Poquito, a boost in name recognition.

“The exposure would have been incredible,” he said.

At his largest restaurant, Seventy Six, Grill said his two best days of the year last year were during Tulip Time.

The concern associated with the cancellation of Tulip Time isn’t just reserved for restaurants.

Matt Holmes, owner of Jean Marie’s women’s clothing and accessory store, had planned to open a second location in time for the festival. That plan has been pushed back as his original location is closed and trying to sell clothes via Facebook fashion shows.

“That’s a huge hit,” Holmes said of the business revenue. He estimated his business gets almost a 300 percent revenue increase during the festival compared to the weeks leading up to and following the festival.

With the current business climate, Holmes is down to 15 percent of his typical workforce.

It’s a similar situation for businesses across Holland, according to the West Coast Chamber of Commerce.

“Some people think that Tulip Time and Holland are a little bit synonymous," Owczarski said. “The cancellation of Tulip Time this year I think really was that first indicator to people that this is serious.”

Owczarski said the Tulip Time board weighed the economic impact when deciding whether to cancel, but in the end the risk was too great.

“It’s huge,” Owczarski said of the impact. “Our small businesses are going to feel that loss.”

The tulips will still bloom

The 5 million tulips planted last fall in anticipation of the annual festival will still bloom, even though Tulip Time has been canceled.

“When you plant a bulb six months before it blooms, they’re not canceled,” said Gwen Auwerda, executive director of the Tulip Time festival.

The tulips are expected to start blooming around the end of April. Auwerda said festival officials will continue to keep people updated on the status of the tulips on their Facebook page and website.

People should be able to safely still experience the tulips, even if social distancing is still necessary, though residents aren’t exactly advocating for people to travel to the city, and it’s unknown at this point if the governor’s “stay at home” order will still be in effect.

Spectators could drive among six miles of tulip lanes around Holland that go along 12th Street, VanRaalte, 28th Street, and parts of Washington and State Street.

But while people will possibly be able to come out and see the tulips, it won’t be the same without the parades, food vendors and other attractions, Grill said.

"Without the parades, without the kids off school, without the families going downtown getting elephant ears, without the pomp and circumstance of all the different parades, festivities and things that happen as a part of Tulip Time, it’s not the same event,” Grill said.

Looking Ahead

Businesses around Holland, and around the state, are trying to hold on to get through the pandemic.

While Tulip Time is canceled, Fletman is hopeful the community will be able to gather for smaller events later this year. He pointed to Holland’s summertime parties called Street Performers.

Street Performers is a weekly party downtown all summer through Labor Day weekend where streets are shutdown and thousands of people flock to see magicians, musicians, dancers and other acts in the streets.

“So that’s a big deal every Thursday and my next hope is, hopefully that doesn’t get impacted,” Feltman said. “Are we on the other side of this where people can gather? That’s a big question mark.”

If it’s safe to gather again and people feel safe being in the public again during the summer, that could be enough to get businesses through to next year’s festival.

The chamber is doing webinars for small businesses on topics like implications of executive orders issues by the governor and navigating cash flow crunches. It’s also working with Lakeshore Advantage, a West Michigan non-profit economic development organization, to distribute grants.

READ MORE: MichMash: As small businesses struggle to stay alive, some help is out there

The state approved a $20 million economic relief program to help small businesses with things like making payroll and paying rent.

At the end of the day, the festival will be back, Auwerda said.

Holland’s small businesses hope to be open when the 2021 event comes around.

PREVENTION TIPS

Michigan’s State Emergency Operations Center is coordinating state-government resources and the response to the coronavirus spread. It has shared the following tips:

What you can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases:

· Always cover coughs or sneezes with a tissue or sleeve.

· Stay home if you are sick and advise others to do the same.

· Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

· Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.

· Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.

· Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, if soap and warm water are not available.

· Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces(computers, keyboards, desks, etc.).

· It’s not too late to get your flu shot! While the influenza vaccine does not protect against COVID-19 infection, it can help keep you healthy during the flu season.

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