Professional US costumers’ organisation The National Costumers Association (NCA) bought the industry together at the end of last week for a webinar, designed to help costume shop owners understand their options during the coronavirus crisis.
The webinar – which was open to both members and non-members – saw NCA executive director Ed Avis speak about the financial, employment and safety issues posed by the crisis.
One of the most important areas that Ed covered was for US retailers looking to move online following the closure of their physical stores. He went on to list a number of options before going onto discuss the economic and financial help being offered by the US Government and how to access the loans on offer.
Following this, Ed was then joined by three costume shop owners – Janine Caufield of Caufield’s (Louisville, KY), Marion Bradley of Balloons-n-Parties and Discount Costumes (Warner Robins, GA) and Louella Torrence of Drop Me a Line Costume Shop (Allentown, PA) who discussed their experiences and ideas from the ‘front lines’ of the crisis.
The webinar also covered issues such as how long the virus lives on clothing, how to keep customers engaged, how to keep cash flowing during the crisis and what the various new US federal acts entail before closing with an open Q&A session.
“We will continue to post and share resources and answers to your questions as we get them,” Ed concluded. “We feel that it is important, as an association, to help not just our members but the industry as a whole to survive this crisis.”
A number of other other key resources have also been posted, including details about the NCA 1,000 Mask Challenge, which is already almost halfway to its goal.
