Q & A: How COVID-19 Has Affected Fort Collins Nursery

Businesses began to get affected as COVID-19 cases began to rise across the country in the spring. Many businesses are either seeing a rise or fall in their sales. Local businesses have had to quickly adapt to this new normal. I had an email conversation with Fort Collins Nursery owner, Jesse Eastman about how the pandemic has impacted his family business.

Q: What changes had to be made when the COVID19 pandemic first began?

A:When the pandemic first started, we made the decision to close our doors to the public earlier than most other local businesses, and definitely prior to the mandatory shutdowns that were implemented in spring. This was done because of concern for our employees’ health. We had to rapidly adapt to selling all our product online and over the phone, right as we would normally be ramping up for our busiest season of the year, and it was by far the most stressful experience I’ve ever been through. Our business relies very heavily on customers being able to enjoy the highly visual nature of everything we sell, browse, and choose their own items. Having to essentially do everyone’s shopping for them was massively time consuming, and order accuracy was a big challenge.

We reopened our doors to the public on April 27th with lots of controls in place, and things got back to something similar to normal fairly quickly. We required (and still require) masks for all customers and employees at all times, (indoors and outdoors), which was met with some resistance by some customers but was applauded by many more. We had to limit the number of cars that could park in our parking lot in order to prevent crowding in the store, and we had to make sure nobody was parking on the street and walking in. This meant we had to hire and train multiple parking attendants, a position we’ve never had before. We have also had to be much more flexible in our scheduling. Between setting some staff up to work from home and having to allow employees who felt sick extra time off to either get tested and/or self quarantine, there were major shifts in how we staff, and that took some getting used to.

Q: How did the stay at home orders affect the sales at Fort Collins Nursery?

A: It seems like our business, along with most other home improvement related businesses, are doing very well. Since everyone is staying home instead of traveling and going out, people are a lot more focused on making their home a nice place to spend time. Gardening has also proven to be a great way for people to spend time outside while avoiding crowds, plus people feel really good about growing their own food. It’s a rare win-win in an otherwise stressful year.

Q: Have there been any kinds of plants that are in higher demand?

A:Since everyone is staying home and gardening more, vegetable starts and seeds were in extremely high demand in spring, to the extent that there were frequent shortages that we’re only just now catching up with. Houseplants have been rising in popularity for several years now, and with more people staying and working from home this year, that demand has only gotten higher. Landscape plants, particularly trees and shrubs for creating privacy screens, have also seen a significant uptick in sales. I think as people spent more time in their backyards, they realized how much they’d prefer to not have their neighbors watching everything they do, so people are spending a lot to create more outdoor privacy.

Q:What has been the hardest transition?

A:The hardest transition was adjusting to online/phone-only sales in Late March and early April. Keeping track of everyone’s order when we sell thousands and thousands of different items, making suggestions for alternatives when so much of what people buy is based on personal taste, and keeping inventory accurate all while figuring out how to keep employees safe and wondering if we could afford to keep the business running was an absolute nightmare.

Q: What has been the easiest transition?

A: The easiest was once we realized what the pandemic meant in terms of increased demand for our merchandise. All we had to do was figure out where to buy a whole lot more of everything.