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Okemos, MI—Becky Beauchine Kulka Diamonds & Fine Jewelry was one of the retailers interviewed by the Lansing State Journal about how the coronavirus pandemic is going to impact holiday shopping on a local level. Image of Kulka and a customer, by Matthew Dae Smith of the Lansing State Journal. 

Like most retailers, Kulka expects foot traffic to be down markedly this holiday season. And like many other jewelers, she had to pivot very quickly from not selling online at all to becoming savvy at e-commerce. She told the paper:

"We had a website, but it wasn't something that was a big part of my business and now it's something that's very important to us," she said.

The store adopted "virtual shopping" for her customers by making videos in which pieces can be modeled and explained. It will be just like you're in the store, she said.

"We're trying to make sure that every opportunity we have to make a sale or to make a customer happy or to do a repair that we're not missing it because there is so little foot traffic compared to normal," she said.

Kulka also encouraged shoppers to wear masks. "If people realize how hard it is for an entrepreneur to be in business and how easy it is to wear a mask, whether you believe in it or not, just help people like me not lose a business because you didn't want to wear a mask," she told the paper.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has taken a lot of political heat—including a plot to kidnap her—for locking down the state earlier this year, encouraged shoppers to spend their holiday dollars at local stores and restaurants, both virtually and in person following mask and distance precautions.