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Area businesses rely on chain store sales post-hurricane
In the wake of consecutive hurricanes that battered the Tampa Bay area, local businesses in St. Petersburg are adapting their business strategies to stay afloat.
The devastating one-two punch of Hurricanes Helene and Milton left many local businesses reeling, with those that rely on foot traffic and local partners particularly hard-hit.
“The manufacturers that have a much smaller footprint, and maybe they exist only in this county or in this state – you look around, and you don’t see that we went through a storm,” said Mike Harting, owner of 3 Daughters Brewing. “Our biggest accounts are the Sand Pearl and the Don CeSar, and all that business is going to disappear for a while. It is horrible for them, but at the same time, what do you do when your manufacturing business loses 25 percent a week?”
Taprooms, hotels and coastal restaurants, once bustling with tourists and locals alike, are seeing a sharp decline as the community focuses on recovery efforts. This drop in on-premise sales is forcing many local business owners to quickly pivot their distribution strategies, calling on customers and chain stores to help uplift area outfits that are struggling.
Locally-made craft beer from 3 Daughters Brewing in St. Petersburg and 7venth Sun Brewery in Dunedin on sale at a St. Pete ABC Fine Wine & Spirits store.
“How do you impress upon the Targets, the Wawas, the Walmarts, the 7-Elevens and the bigger companies that the local manufacturers that only exist on this coast of Florida are going to lose business?” Harting said. “In times like this, is there room for, ‘Hey, for six months, we’re gonna put in an end cap of Florida-made products?’”
3 Daughters Brewing products can be found in more than 4,500 locations throughout Florida, ranging from Key West to Jacksonville. A key component of 3 Daughters’ retail strategy has been its partnership with Publix, Florida’s largest employee-owned grocery chain. This partnership has provided 3 Daughters with a stable sales channel and broader customer reach, helping to offset losses from reduced taproom traffic.
This widespread availability has become crucial for maintaining sales volume and brand visibility during a period when taproom visits have declined. Harting also noted an initiative from ABC Fine Wine & Spirits to spotlight local brands helped boost sales significantly during Covid lockdowns.
Other local business owners, like Mother Kombucha Co-Founder and CEO Tonya Donati, are now looking at new ways to stay in the black – even when it goes against the brand’s typical ethos.
“Our strategy has always been ‘home first,’ and really building amongst our community,” Donati explained. “We’ve grown outside of Florida, but we’ve always believed the right way to build a sustainable business was to go deep rather than wide. So now we have to look at what kind of pivot keeps our business in place. That’s not how we want to do business, but we really have to diversify as much as we can.”
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Donati said that while Mother Kombucha’s facilities have remained intact, she’s already seeing a decrease in product demand due to closed businesses, damaged homes and displaced residents. Several of Mother Kombucha’s staff members lost their homes in the storm, and Donati worries about how the next few weeks will play out in our community.
“It’s not just important to keep our business open for the sake of the business; it’s the need to keep our team gainfully employed and be able to continue to participate in the local economy,” Donati said. Her advice for those still living and working in the area? “Whether it’s out in a restaurant that sells our products or at the grocery store, just think about, now more than ever, where your dollars are going, who it’s going to and what’s important to you. Make your decisions based on if you want to continue to have the things that make St. Pete and our area special.”
As St. Petersburg and the broader Tampa Bay area continue to recover from the impacts of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the local industry’s landscape is likely to remain in flux. At a time when residents are relying on their employers to keep going, companies are similarly relying on finding new ways to keep the lights on – for themselves and their staffs.
“We have a manufacturing plant that produces normally about 50 hours a week. Right now, we’ll produce for about 25 hours this week,” Harting said. “We’ll do everything that we can to subsidize the team, but if this goes on for another three weeks, we’re gonna have to make some decisions.”
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