A blizzard closed stores and supply shortages marred this year’s holiday shopping season. The pain felt by these challenges wasn’t evenly shared throughout the retail industry.
Nathan Sanderson is the executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association. He said while some businesses benefited from the storm, others are still digging out of a hole.
“Restaurants in a lot of places didn’t do well during that time," Sanderson said. "The kinds of retail businesses that sold Christmas gifts, so think toy stores and clothing stores and that kind of thing, didn’t do as well. But on the flip side, if you were a hardware store you had an amazing December probably, and grocery stores did alright during that time as well.”
Among business owners in 2023, Sanderson described cautious optimism and a ‘wait and see’ mentality.
“Inflation has been something on their minds a lot," Sanderson said. "Certainly, workforce continues to be on the minds of business owners a lot. A lot of them are preparing to have flat revenues in 2023, they’re looking to tighten the belt. So, the ‘r-word’, recession is being whispered out there, but a lot of businesses are preparing in case that does actually come about.”
But for the shopper, Sanderson expects a mixed bag.
“A lot of the supply chain disruptions we saw through Covid are likely gone – that’s not true in every type of business, but it's true for the most part," Sanderson said. "Inflation is going to continue to bump prices in a lot of places. Just a couple of years ago we were looking at one-percent inflation, two-percent inflation. This year we’re looking at six or seven-percent inflation.
Rising costs for items like beef, eggs, and milk have already affected South Dakota shoppers.