Smaller Clothing Retailers Face A Tough Road Back
One women’s boutique in Wellfleet, Mass., has managed to survive. Here’s how.
Eccentricity, a women’s clothing store in Wellfleet, Mass., is stocked with inventive, loosely fitting fashions that appeal mostly to middle aged and older women. Owner Gail McGibbon, who has run the store with her husband since 1985, gives disposable gloves to customers who want to try on clothing, masks to those not already wearing them and plenty of advice about what shirt and necklace go best with what pair of pants.
The steady flow of customers she usually serves, however, has slowed to a trickle in the wake of the pandemic. Although vacationers, who comprise 95 percent of Eccentricity’s customers, flocked to Wellfleet’s beaches this summer, they haven’t been crowding the shop or the ten or so other clothing boutiques on and around Main Street.