Knife Industry Reopens Amid Changing Landscape
by H. Clay Aalders
While the coronavirus pandemic has by no means run its full course, at the time of this writing (June 1st) most areas of the country are in some stage of reopening. The knife industry is going through these same transitions, though the pace of progress varies significantly from state to state and company to company.
Throughout the shutdown, many knife retailers were able to maintain online sales, in some case even seeing an uptick in some sales. According to Goldie Russell (AG Russell Knives), “We did continue online and mail-order. There has been a slight decline in the number of orders, but a significant increase in the average dollar value per order. Our overall gross sales for April and May have been down just about the amount of the store sales from 2019.”
According to Tyler Pipes, Smoky Mountain Knife Works COO, “In my opinion this has accelerated existing industry trends ahead by five years. The last several months have forced smaller knife retailers to increase their online presence and be active in social media and online marketing in a way that they hadn’t been doing.”
This article appears in the July 2020 issue of Knife Magazine. Click the blue box below to read the whole thing…
