Posted on 05/26/2021 3:14:58 PM PDT by conservative98
A recent easing of mask-wearing guidelines from the US government was a welcome change for many Americans. That wasn't entirely the case for mask seller Gabriela Henriquez.
"I immediately called and texted my friends who were working for me making masks through the pandemic and said this wasn't good news for us," said Henriquez, who sells face masks on Etsy.
LittleLadyAHomemade for her handmade masks plunged more than 70% the day after the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention announcement on May 13. The agency said that people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances.
"The market just dropped," she said. "I had a phenomenal last year in sales. Now what? Where do we go from here?"
Etsy seller Gabriela Henriquez. Etsy seller Gabriela Henriquez. Last year, the pandemic turned face masks into a wardrobe staple. Sellers big and small benefited from the trend. Etsy said cloth masks had erupted into the hottest new product category on its platform last summer. In August, the company said 110,000 sellers on its marketplace had sold as many as 29 million face masks, totaling $346 million.
The boom may be coming to an end. In early May, Etsy said in an annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the face mask market was poised to soften, noting that it had seen "demand for certain items, like handmade masks, diminish significantly with the rollout of the vaccine."
Now, sellers like Henriquez, who spent the past year investing more than $150,000 in her mask business, are trying to figure out how to successfully pivot.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
There was forced compliance here. I bought a Trump one, another said “Worn by Force, not by Fear.” Then I bought one from fakemaskusa.com that was mesh.
Staple them together for bikinis.
Jeez, she’s fat. You need to follow up with a picture of a good looking woman.
Now that the beaches are open, pollute the oceans with them.
The leftists want masks, give them masks!
;-)
A friend of mine was making memory blankets for several years. She shifted to making custom masks. Now she is shifting back to memory blankets.
Market conditions change, so you must change.
stuff happens.
Sadly, the beaches and oceans are already polluted with used, dirty, disease-ridden, masks.
Like I said!
There is a market out there!
The masks could serve as jockstraps, too....
Who makes buggy whips any more? They kind of went out of style over a century ago, as cars (which did not respond to whips) replaced horses as personal transportation.
Make American flags, they’re always in high demand.
You move into something else. Keep the masks as a sideline, as there will always be people who want one.
I guess some never saw the irony in the masks I saw at Walmart emblazoned with “Freedom.”
maybe she could knit cases for the pocket Constitution
How about stenciled” F__ your masks and your pandemic” t-shirts?
How ‘bout making t-shirts with the slogan LIVE FREELY. Pivot in the opposite direction and GO BIG.
lol. LOVE THIS!!!!
Henriquez just learned a valuable business lesson. I'm not sure if they teach this in b-school any more. But when I was in college, some 40 years ago, I had a prof that railed on the notion that you always need to have a new product or service in the pipeline. He was a marketing professor of all things.
Just a side note: back then they taught the purpose of a business was to increase shareholder wealth. That's is down right evil today.
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