In the third of a series of ‘United Nations’ reports (the first two being from Jenny Cummins of McMillan Cards in Oz and Tori Wright of Paper E.Clips in Canada) Alan Harnik, founder and president of Notes & Queries, a long-established US distributor of UK publishers, shares his take on the North American greeting card sector and sends good wishes to his many friends in the UK card community.
How is the greeting card trade in the United States, compared to pre-pandemic?
“It’s safe to say that the pandemic has affected all of our personal and business lives. The shutdowns in spring of 2020 meant that all of our greeting card business ground to a halt with the exception of our food stores where we continued to supply them. For the balance of the year, we started to build up our everyday and Christmas business with both independents and key accounts. Our 2020 Christmas was one of our best in many years though we ran out of inventory and couldn’t supply many last-minute orders. We have had really good shipping numbers for the first half of 2021 and we expect that based on what’s in the books, we will at end of the year be where we were at the end of 2019 sales wise.”
What have been the significant changes?
“There have been many changes in the retail marketplace here in the US. I went to New York recently and saw how hard retail has been hit in the city centre which at mid-day looked like a ghost town. Until business comes back in these cities retail in these areas will continue to suffer.”
“More and more shops have developed retail websites to grow and maintain their business presence. With no trade shows taking place after February 2020, retailers have relied on publishers’ websites and printed material for placing orders. In the last quarter of 2020, sales agents were finally getting back to seeing their customers in person. This has been aided by the vaccine rollout which has provided us with a sense of liberation.
For distributors like Notes & Queries, one of our biggest challenges that still exists is shipping. Shipping is a real nightmare with rates having gone up for both air and sea shipments by 3-10 times what they were pre-pandemic. Getting space is also a challenge. Because of the lockdown in the UK, some of our trading partners were not able to reprint as quickly as they had done in the past and orders which used to be filled within a week now take several or even longer due to reduced staffing. This, of course, is coming back and we are now getting our inventory quicker.
As to changes in customer buying patterns, we did see our retail business increase during the pandemic as more and more folks were buying online. We also saw an increase in sympathy, get well, inspiration and friendship cards being sold to our retailers meaning that that’s what their customers were looking for.”
What has been the good news?
“The good news I think is retail is back and we see it growing each day in our market. We expect that the second half of 2021 and 2022 will see the opening of many new accounts in part to replace independents that have closed as well as new accounts that open because they see a gap in their area and have a vision of how they can fill it with a new store. I also see many of these new accounts opening not in major cities but in the suburbs, little towns outside metropolitan areas.
There are always opportunities in every market. Notes & Queries was fortunate to be given the opportunity to sell to a major bookseller in the US and as well as expand its business with several key accounts.
2020 was supposed to be a transitional year for us at Notes & Queries with Vanessa Harnik, Alan’s daughter assuming an increasing role and ownership of the company. The pandemic just sped up that process and we see that it should be complete in 2022. So, a shout out to her strength and courage that it took to navigate through last year’s challenges.”
Do you have a message for your UK friends?
“For my UK friends, existing trading partners and partners-in-waiting, “Congrats” to you being at PG Live and celebrating your own success in navigating the challenges of the last year and I wish you all a very successful show and a great year end 2021.”
- Last year Notes & Queries celebrated its 40th anniversary. Click hereto read more about it on a PG Buzz story.
Top: Alan Harnik has been at the forefront on distributing UK publishers into America for decades.
