“We were closed the third week in March because of governor’s orders, but we did curbside pickup,” recounts Kim Ehrick, manager of the AAA Minneapolis Travel Store, a 2,800-square-foot store inside the main office for AAA Minneapolis. “We reopened the Tuesday after Memorial Day, we’ve been open a couple of weeks. It’s still not exactly business as usual because people are still waiting for travel bans to lift.”
“It’s not every day that’s a step forward; some days you’ll have a really strong day, other days just medium. But each week it picks up, that’s the trend.”
That trend is helped by being an auto club destination. “Our AAA magazine, Live Play, AAA, prints six times per year, we just had a magazine drop, we feature items in a regular article entitled ‘Travel Store Essentials.’ At this time of year we’d usually have something affiliated with road trips, and that has worked for us.”
The store is running a leaner staff, and also taking precautions. “We’re limiting the amount of people that come in, we’re requiring masks for anyone entering the building as well as employees.”
Ehrick says they turned up the car travel a little. “We kind of shifted the focus, working hand in hand with our marketing department, who’re really great about getting the word out on the store. We have lots of things tied to road trips for the summer, and camping, putting together a shop within a shop, with an outdoor feel to it. We’re going to get in some hammocks, trying to utilize some vendors we have, hammocks from Sea to Summit – one of our employees in our marketing department is a ’mocker, someone who enjoys the activity, she’s a resident expert and writing an article. It’s something you maybe wouldn’t ordinarily buy at a travel store, but we’re embracing all kinds of new changes, relying on our really great people who are really savvy and in touch with trends.”
The store is also leveraging its AAA ties, piggybacking on top of weekly blasts from the travel department to include a tie-in item. “For example our travel department is promoting Clearwater Beach as a destination, so we include beach-related things we sell in the store, one is a travel blanket by Matador and a compact Bluetooth speaker by DM Merchandising.”
“We’re continuing with curbside. We are getting a handful of requests – we’re making sure people feel comfortable. And we’re trying a personal shopper program, that’s new to us. We are using a software package called Setmore, where customers can set an appointment online, list what they’re interested in, and get time with us one on one. We’ve seen some interest and it’s something to try. Ideally, come fall, people will be thinking about 2021 at some point and we’ll have really strong business.”
