These sales numbers show how big a hit Whatcom restaurants, businesses took from COVID-19
Last year was a brutal year for Whatcom County restaurants, hotels and clothing stores and the sales numbers reported to the state show how big a hit they took during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whatcom County restaurants tallied a little over $295 million in sales last year, according to data from the Washington State Department of Revenue. That’s a 26.2% drop compared to 2019, or more than $100 million that disappeared during pandemic restrictions and closures.
It’s a little surprising that the drop wasn’t worse, said Guy Occhiogrosso, president and CEO of Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“I think that it speaks to the resiliency of the industry, given what they were able to accomplish with curbside takeout and other changes,” Occhiogrosso said.
Occhiogrosso believes it will take some time before restaurant spending returns to 2019 levels because of structural changes beyond what the pandemic created. A worker shortage is forcing restaurants to cut back on hours of operations, with some announcing closures at different times of the week.
“There’s a lot of components in the industry that is still in chaos,” Occhiogrosso said.
With travel restricted for much of 2020, lodging industry revenue was down 45.6% in 2020, posting just $46.3 million in sales.
Clothes shopping also took a backseat during the first year of the pandemic. In 2020 clothing sales totaled $87.6 million, a 26.4% drop compared to 2019.
Whatcom residents did spend money in other areas, though, that reflect what we were doing during the pandemic. Sales in electronics and appliances jumped 19.4% year-over-year, while building materials and gardening equipment rose 14.5%. Vehicle sales were also slightly higher, rising 3.7%.
As expected, online sales in Whatcom County also posted big increases in 2020 as shoppers turned to delivery during the pandemic. According to the state data, online sales rose 26.1% to $63.2 million in 2020 when compared to 2019.
One hopeful sign for local merchants was the holiday shopping season. During the fourth quarter, Whatcom’s overall retail sales rose 3.9% compared to the 2019 holiday shopping season. That increase happened despite Canadians not participating in the shopping season in Whatcom County because of the border restrictions.
The border towns of Blaine and Sumas took very similar hits in retail sales with the border restrictions in place. Retail sales in Blaine were down 24.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, while Sumas was down 25.7%.
Lynden posted a 4.7% gain in overall retail sales in 2020, while sales at restaurants in Lynden dropped 6.6%, a much smaller drop than in the county overall. Ferndale followed a similar trend with Lynden in restaurant sales, posting a decrease of 6.5%, but had a big jump in overall retail sales, rising 13.7%.
