Santa Claus glove sales are very different this Christmas season due to the Covid-19 virus since I am seeing a downturn in our Santa Claus style White Glove sales with our regular shopping mall operators. These operators traditionally order their glove supplies for their Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus’ exhibits by September or early October and this has occurred for many years going back for over 2 decades now. Furthermore, this includes our mall and department store operators not only in North America but in other countries like Australia and so forth.
There won’t even be any Miracle of 34th Street this year since Santa won’t be visiting any Macy’s stores in 2020 ending an almost 160 year Holiday Season tradition which started in 1861.
I feel very sad for the children anticipating their visit to Santa this year to reveal their gift wishes. However, I can’t place any blame on the mall and department store operators to help eliminate additional possibilities of the virus spread. Although, it does appear that most malls may have Santa’s behind Plexiglas for picture taking. They just won’t need a fresh supply of clean white gloves. See my teaching moment comment in my conclusion.
A lot of our glove sales have weakened this year due to the virus and, as you can imagine, this includes our sales to church groups and church ushers, Bell Choirs, doormen, many major hotel chains, restaurants, and catering companies. I refer to these glove sales as our hospitality segment.
Major parades such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade have also been cancelled due to the virus. This also affects our Band Glove sales to marching band units and cheer units which has always been a traditional prop to our holiday seasonal glove sales.
Interesting enough, I’ve found that for many years, certain gloves sales are a barometer and indicator for many occurrences. For example, I can track cold weather patterns across the country by the mere sales of cold and winter weather gloves. We also saw an unprecedented sellout of our single use disposable gloves when the pandemic hit. We can also see at this time of year new orders for our High-Visibility gloves when daylight savings time ends.
As far as our Santa gloves, I’m not complaining since that business will come back next year. I’m simply sharing how everyone is affected by the Covid-19 virus and I’m sympathizing for the children that have to sacrifice that cherished visit with Santa Claus this year.
The up-side to this matter: The most positive aspect is that this can become a good teaching moment for our children. It can be used to emphasize the importance of wearing masks and social distancing since even Santa Claus can get the virus.
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The Glove Guru
Joe McGarry
