Alumni

Alumni has supported other small NYC businesses with content, even though it was wrestling with its own woes in 2020. While the total sales across its three locations and e-commerce have drastically increased, reflective of its pivot to e-commerce in 2020, the profit margins dropped nearly 22% due to commissions for online platforms and other investments in web development. Due to the pandemic closures, the owners spiraled into debt with vendors/suppliers for about $160,000, of which about half was repaid by an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) loan from the Small Business Administration. The cofounders furloughed its entire workforce from March 16 to April 25. In May, they slowly brought back most of its original staff. "We took on survival tactics by cutting expenses but we saw an increase in sales online," says Cho. Before Covid-19, e-commerce accounted for less than 40% of total. Today, it accounts for 95% of sales. "It didn't cover everything, but it was enough to keep the lights on in all three stores when it was time to reopen." He adds, "So we're still very much in our physical store spaces but we're continuously evolving online." Follow me on Twitter. Check out some of my other work here. Send me a secure tip.