Periodic staffing shortages and fewer customers also hurt small firms amid Omicron wave
Phillip Howard in his Troy's Ski Lubbock shop in Lubbock, Texas, January 14 2022. Picture: BRADLEY BROOKS/REUTERS
“Late-arriving product really kills us,” Howard said last week, noting that several other items had also arrived late, missing his pre-holiday sales season. “I’ve been in this business for almost 20 years, and I’ve never encountered anything like this.” US retail sales fell 1.9% in December amid the shortage of goods and surging infections, the commerce department said on Friday.
Staffing shortages forced Gage & Tollner, a 19th-century chop house in Brooklyn, New York, to close for five days in late December. “Our costs of goods are through the roof, there’s inflationary pressure, supply chains are a mess,” Rosen said. Peers said optimism grew over the summer and early fall, with the city’s high vaccination rates and many restrictions lifted. That lasted through Thanksgiving.Small businesses in states where Covid-19 restrictions have been far looser than New York say customers are still coming out, but other pandemic issues continue to plague them.
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