How One Small Business is Thriving in the Age of COVID
One of New Jersey’s youngest CEOs explains her plights as a result of the pandemic and how she overcomes them.
“My business is a place for all body types, all different styles, there is not one specific person or brand or personality that I accept…it’s a symbiotic relationship between earth, customer, me, clothing, it’s everything,” explains Mackenzie Malpass, owner of Kenzie’s Kloset, an online consignment shop based in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. As many small shops struggle to maintain business as usual, Malpass manages to successfully adapt to the commonly regarded “new normal” of life, despite the various transformations the company underwent. How has this metamorphosis impacted her business in the present and in the long run? Will people’s shopping habits ultimately change, with more of an emphasis on shopping small, sustainable and socially distanced?
Since the arrival of the coronavirus in March, storefronts have inconsistently opened and closed; owners now have to abide by new regulations, and consumers have less expendable income than normal. As of November, the United States stands at 15,545,831 coronavirus cases with an unemployed population of nearly 11 million, suggesting slow economic amelioration since the initial shutdowns. While most mainstream corporations and big box retailers have been able to pick themselves up and restore a sense of normalcy, small businesses across the country have not had it so easy.
Perhaps the greatest economic victim of the pandemic, after working class individuals, are America’s small businesses. With less means to survive economic catastrophe, many small businesses have had to close their doors, while those that have been able to keep themselves afloat have had to completely transform their ways of conducting business in accordance with public health and safety regulations. Not only has Malpass been able to call herself one of the youngest CEOs of New Jersey, she has taken advantage of the online shopping boom and found ways to rebuild her modes of operation to uphold safety priorities and clientele interest concurrently.
While on winter break from The College of New Jersey, just months before the pandemic hit the United States, Malpass sought a creative way to make money after suffering from a major concussion, rendering herself unable to work a traditional job. With the idea to sell her old clothes through an Instagram page, she created Kenzie’s Kloset under the handle @kenziesskloset. And now, the Kloset is a vibrant consignment shop that carries used and new clothes, casual to high-end styles, a range of brands from Steve Madden to Forever 21, and sizes XS to 4XL.
As time progressed, her page gained popularity and a following larger than what she had anticipated. Between selling her own clothes, and the clothes of friends and family, the Kloset became much more than just a quick way to make money. Because of her success as a personable businesswoman, she had not only switched her major to business before returning from winter break, but also made so many connections and friendships after discovering her passion for the industry.
Before the pandemic hit, the Kloset was run right out of her bedroom. She filled her personal space with racks and shelving systems, inviting the customers into her house to create an open and personal shopping environment. “It’s such an intimate experience, coming in to some random person’s home, going upstairs to their room and trying on clothes — that’s some people’s worst nightmare.” says Malpass. She prides herself on the safe space of the Kloset, which is seen in both the inclusive atmosphere to the all-encompassing inventory at the Kloset, with one customer calling it “a freeing experience.” But the eventual onslaught of coronavirus restrictions transformed the shopping experience at Kenzie’s Kloset.
With health and safety risks presented by entering someone else’s home, Malpass was forced to adapt to the new emerging world. The changes were tough for her to circumvent with the immense pressure of getting creative in a short amount of time to keep her new business stable amid the obstacles the pandemic put in place. For Malpass, the hardest part of the transition was “trying to come up with a system that made it safe enough to still run the business as it is,” while also putting together “a process that was going to put the safety precautions of the customers, myself and my family first before actually making business decisions,” all of which are novel priorities many business owners had to think about.
With the social environment of the Kloset virtually gone, her business is missing a key aspect to its success. However, Malpass put a new system in place that would satisfy the requirements of shopping responsibility in a pandemic: no contact pickup shopping. “I bought cute little bags, I got some stickers and stuff, and I packaged the items so that girls could pick them up and I would put them on my doorstep,” says Malpass. These simple adjustments, such as being flexible with returns, using a clothing rack outside for product pickup, mobile payment options, and seasonal outdoor sales where the Kloset becomes a socially distanced shopping event, ensures that the Kloset is a business that runs safely and efficiently.
In addition to business procedures, the nature of shopping itself has changed dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic. With limitations on brick and mortar shopping, many people have been taking their shopping to the internet. In addition to the online shopping wave, shopping trends and public perception of consumption have changed with the pandemic. More individuals emphasize shopping mindfully, ethically, and affordably, according to a 2020 survey that found 67 percent of its participants prioritize factors of sustainability in a brand.
The migration toward sustainable shopping, especially online, has put the Kloset in a strong position for the future of shopping. With the emphasis on being environmentally and economically sustainable, Malpasss will attract the customers who prioritize the same. “I’ve always been an eco friendly person and nowadays, being more environmentally cautious is popular among our generation. Whatever we can do to add onto that bandwagon is awesome,” says Malpass. For Isabella Ghanbary, a 19-year-old college student and longtime customer of Kenzie’s Kloset, almost every factor of the business keeps her coming back to the shop — before and after the pandemic.
“I was very lucky to realize at a young age how important it is to support [small] businesses, but especially when COVID-19 broke out,” says Ghanbary. “It made me realize how much those smaller businesses and companies were affected so much more than big brands who are able to support themselves and get through whatever, versus a small business that’s struggling to pay rent.”
Like many of her peers, Ghanbary prioritizes sustainability to the point that it has been implemented into her lifestyle, and consistently shops secondhand. “I really like the idea of being good to the environment and also being good to my bank account… I felt like [Kenzie’s Kloset] was kind of killing two birds with one stone,” she says. However at this time Ghanbary was not anticipating how Kenzie’s Kloset would blow up in the near future, as well as the blossoming friendship between herself and Malpass.
COVID-19 continues to change much about the way people go about things down to the most mundane aspects of life, from grocery shopping to social interaction — and this has extended to how people shop. The ways people are viewing consumerism and the ways people want to shop have all been transformed by the new environment of our world. Although Malpass aspires to take the Kloset to a permanent store location, her shop is still thriving after its initial transformation. As it centers around being sustainable and economical, the Kloset’s business structure is the one of the future that many consumers are all beginning to get used to now.
