Public Records & Notices Monitoring local real estate since 1968 View a complete day’s public records Subscribe Presented by and notices today for our at memphisdailynews.com. free report www.chandlerreports.com Tuesday, April 27, 2021 MemphisDailyNews.com Vol. 136 | No. 50 Rack–50¢/Delivery–39¢ Local retailers pivot to embrace online sales CHRISTIN YATES 2020, Daryl Andrews and Ash- “I think everybody had to varieties online to more than 125 trillion. For 2021, estimates indi- Courtesy of The Daily Memphian ley Parham, owners of gift shop ‘swerve.’ Our big pivot was to be- options. “Once our puzzle inven- cate 14.3% growth for e-commerce Since the COVID-19 pandemic Walking Pants Curiosities in the come a puzzle company overnight tory online was purchased, and we sales worldwide. Kelly Martin, Joe began to wreak havoc on the econ- Historic South Main Arts District because of the intense demand.” realized puzzles were going to be Sharp and Amy Long, owners of omy in the spring of 2020, local re- Downtown, said they were aver- In the first month of “Safer so popular, we searched for differ- Indigo in Germantown and Little tailers made the almost overnight aging about 20-25 online orders at Home” orders, Walking Pants ent manufacturers,” Parham said. Rock, Arkansas, were thankful to move to online sales and have per month. Curiosities soared from meager While 2020 was a challenging have launched the store’s website learned how to make the most “A year ago, we, like a lot of online orders to more than 600 year for retailers, eMarketer esti- in 2019, just before the pandemic of the space to reach customers. small businesses, did a small num- per month. The couple also went mates that e-commerce sales grew When the pandemic hit in March ber of online sales,” Andrews said. from selling 15-20 different puzzle 27.6% last year for a total of $4.28 RETAILERS CONTINUED ON P2 Art Competition Exhibition. The competition was open to high school students across the area illus- trating aspects of Memphis. Collierville High students land The students illustrated the spirit of Memphis on canvases 11-by-14 inches. Then they transferred the paintings to larger ones about 3-by-4 feet in size. Of the 31 pieces displayed in the terminal, 15 artwork at airport originated from CHS students. Collierville’s final- ists’ depictions ranged from Ja Morant’s dunks to The Peabody’s famed ducks. Scenes included the Memphis Zoo, Overton Park, the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and Beale Street. Paintings of iconic events like the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend and concerts at Levitt Shell were also among the finalists. Junior Diya Singh did an abstract portrait of Elvis Presley. “He’s probably the personification of Memphis,” she said. “I decided to do something more abstract – a lot of shapes, a lot of color, very bold. ... I thought maybe the colors would also signify how diverse Memphis is.” A large presence of graffiti art and murals exist in Shelby County, Singh noted. She typically prefers blending and subtleties in her art, tending to be more “stylized,” Jennifer Burford, a CHS art teacher, said. So this was a slight challenge. Her acrylic work resembled the style of Pablo Picasso. Singh enjoyed seeing her classmates’ work, the way they have honed their skills and thoughts on the uniqueness Memphis. “I would have thought after 14 years (fresh ideas) would get harder and harder,” Burford said. “It seems like every year the compositions, the techniques are different. It’s really fun to see the variation.” Jones enjoys seeing the works when he visits the airport. He takes pictures with them and sends them back to the delight of teachers and adminis- trators. Glen Thomas, public information officer Collierville High School junior Diya Singh talks about her Elvis painting on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Singh and 16 of her classmates for Memphis International Airport, said the illus- won an art competition to have their artwork featured at the Memphis International Airport. (Mark Weber/Courtesy of The Daily Memphian) trations of Memphis could be hung in the B and C terminals connector, but it is not finalized. To ABIGAIL WARREN by Collierville High students.“I wasn’t gives you a small look into our window have this many is special, Jones said as the annual Courtesy of The Daily Memphian surprised because we have some ex- of how talented our kids are. We are competition is open to area high school students New artwork depicting the Bluff tremely talented students,” CHS Prin- very, very fortunate.” throughout Memphis. Superintendent Gary Lilly City by local high schoolers will soon cipal Roger Jones said smiling. The works were selected in the and the Board of Education saw a small sample hang on Memphis International Air- “Our students are so talented in ev- 2021 Memphis International Airport port walls, about half of the pieces done erything they do. Even seeing this just Community Foundation High School ARTWORK CONTINUED ON P3 INSIDE Public Records ���������������� 4 Public Notices ��������������� 17 memphisdailynews.com chandlerreports.com Marriage licenses are unavailable ©2020 The Daily News Publishing Company A division of The Daily News Publishing Company while Shelby County Clerk’s Office Memphis, Tennessee The standard for premium real estate Established 1886 • 135th year information since 1968 reviews internal policies for its digital Call 901.523.1561 to subscribe Call 901.458.6419 for more information platforms� Page 2 MemphisDailyNews.com Tuesday, April 27, 2021 RETAILERS CONTINUED FROM P1 Daryl Andrews (left) stocks books while his partner Ashley Parham organizes items in the background at their Downtown store, Walking Pants Curiosities on April 16, 2021. (Patrick Lantrip/Courtesy of The Daily Memphian) hit. “When COVID hit, the store closed to shopping patterns, and small businesses community and interaction with others in one thing many small businesses are trying curbside only,” Martin said. “At that point, have had to learn how to market to their that buying process.” to figure out. we continued to keep all of our staff on, and customers. “Our website was critical for Martin said Indigo is seeing more cus- “How do we bring that experience to the we used our staff to upload as many items relaying store hour changes and other in- tomers coming in the store, and March was online space either through social media, a as we could onto the web and expand the formation to our customers,” she said. “It’s one of its most successful months on record website, Google search or Pinterest, while face of the web.” a place for shopping, but it has other infor- since opening in 1995. “Our web has not competing with Amazon for our custom- Year over year, the women’s clothing mation and connects to social media as well wavered because there are still people who ers’ business? It’s a local fight against a gi- store has seen at least a 50% increase in as our history. don’t have time to shop in-person but still ant,” he said. online sales, with most online buyers being Much of the online business is generated want to support local,” she said. “COVID “It’s easy to post a meme regarding ‘shop from the local area. when emails are sent out highlighting new pushed us to work harder to upload more local.’ It’s another thing to take the time and “The web expansion has been huge, and products, Lansky said. product. COVID made that change for us to to go out and support your local businesses we utilized our staff through COVID to “We post Instagram stories, and people push us into the correct direction that we and your local restaurants, whether that’s push in the direction of growing the web,” will call. The website is another outlet, and needed to be in.” Andrews said providing through shopping online on an in-person Martin said. “It has been a wonderful addi- it’s constantly generating awareness of our the customer a unique experience online is experience.” tion for us and for our survival.” brand.” Julie Lansky, owner of Lansky Bros., As for online sales continuing strong also saw an upward trend in online sales for the remainder of the year, Lansky throughout the pandemic. The Lanskys doesn’t think pandemic shopping habits own four apparel and gift shops in The Pea- will change. However, she also believes that body hotel and an additional clothing store customers will slowly return to brick-and- on Beale Street. mortar stores. All of the Lansky Bros. stores were com- “I believe based on people’s shopping pletely closed the first 50 days of the pan- habits now and since many have been vacci- demic, and online orders were a “welcomed nated, they like to touch, feel and try things avenue” to generate business for the ex- on,” she said. “And they’re hungry for getting penses the stores were continuing to incur. out and doing something as an experience. “Online sales are still increasing,” she They will want the in-store experience and said. “International customers have been being able to talk to someone in real life.” a good part of our online business over the The notion of the customer experience years, and international travelers can’t get was mentioned by all three local retailers. to Memphis right now,” Lansky said, not- Andrews said whether it is in-person, ing that Lansky Bros., which outfitted El- on a website or through social media, he’s vis Presley and is coined “Clothier to the seeing an expectation from customers King,” is considered “retail tourism.” Lansky that they want more of an experience, and Co-owner Ashley Parham orgainzes a display at the Downtown store, Walking Pants said the pandemic has changed customers’ he says their customers are “hungry for Curiosities on April 16, 2021.