HOLIDAY WEEKEND COULD FIZZLE OUT
If Houstonians stay home to avoid virus, sales for area retailers might be hit
Late last month, Jeff Nadalo, general counsel of Buc-ee’s, thought the future for the famed rest stop chain was looking up. The novel coronavirus had caused business to plummet in mid-March, but as things reopened, people hit the road again, making day trips to the beaches and the Hill Country and stopping at Buc-ee’s, famous for its clean bathrooms, along their way.
Then a surge in COVID-19 cases threw up a roadblock.
Gov. Greg Abbott began rolling back his reopening plan, signaling the severity of the pandemic, which threatens to again fill the intensive care units of Houston’s hospitals. People began canceling travel plans, meaning less of the traffic between major cities, which Buc-ee’s depends on.
On Wednesday, Corpus Christi and Galveston announced that they were shutting down their beaches for the Fourth of July, one of the bigger travel weekends of the year.
If Houstonians heed Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo’s call to stay home again and avoid further contagion, that could mean sales at area retailers also take a hit during what is normally a lucrative weekend.
Venky Shankar, a professor of marketing and director of research at the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M, said coronavirus precautions will likely deal a blow to retail this weekend, though Buc
ee’s may fare better than the rest.
“They’ll still have plenty of motorists,” he said. “Bars are closed, but they still might be hitting the road to see places, maybe do some camping. It will be interesting to see how people approach Houston now that the virus is growing.”
As recently as late last month, the Independence Day outlook looked more positive.
Nadalo said Lake Jacksonbased Buc-ee’s installed plastic shields at its registers and required employees to undergo regular temperature screenings and to wear masks. Sales had nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, he said in late June. Before Memorial Day, “they were more dramatically down,” but the fiscal rebound looked healthy.
“We’re seeing a lot more people taking road trips than perhaps in past years,” he said. “Buc-ee’s is a great place to enhance the summer vacation.”
Randy Pauly, the chain’s barbecue pitmaster, said the slowdown gave him time to retrain the team and perfect a new sandwich.
“In the middle of this, we launched a new pulled pork,” he said. “This will hopefully be a nice complement to our barbecue lineup.”
Things took a turn
Before the coronavirus infections began to surge over the last two weeks, Shankar said the forecast called for more holiday traffic. That’s likely to change.
“I think we will feel the effects of it, especially in places like Houston, where it’s become a sort of hot spot,” he said.
New bans on large gatherings mean large holiday events will turn into small backyard affairs, leading people to spend less on supplies.
And for clothing and furniture stores that normally bank on holiday sales, Shankar said much of that shopping will likely move online.
“They won’t have a lot of shoppers coming in and browsing, which used to be very common,” he said.
Holly Clapham, chief marketing officer for Houston First Corp., said the organization’s surveys suggest that much of the city hasn’t given up on July outings.
Houston First surveyed 181 residents and visitors between June 15 and June 21, and only 30 percent reported feeling unsafe in Houston. About 63 percent of respondents said they would have friends or family visiting Houston before the end of July.
The surveyed population skewed toward the more adventurous, Clapham said, since respondents most frequently access the survey by heading to the website to scope out city event calendars.
“It’s a very active segment of our population. They’re wanting to know what’s happening, what’s new, where can I eat, what can I do,” she said, noting interest in calendars hasn’t waned in recent weeks. “I really haven’t seen our numbers in terms of our website fall that dramatically over the course of the last two weeks.”
Just how much the pandemic’s resurgence will affect tourism and the city’s economy remains to be seen, she said. “The outcome of that is yet to be written.”