Small business owner in Bellevue overcoming the challenges of this holiday season

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Many people have started their holiday shopping earlier this year, but even so, the National Retail Federation is expecting nearly two million more people to shop from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday compared to last year. 

"We’re actually seeing a little bit of that uptick and I’m curious to see what will happen after Friday," said Timothy De Clue, owner of the Bon Collection.

The Bon Collection in Bellevue Square pays homage to vintage department store displays during the holidays. Many of the holiday décor and specialty items are sourced directly from Europe.

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"Lots of ornaments from Germany. We have our spinners in, our nutcrackers and our favorite smokers from Germany," said De Clue. 

While more shoppers are expected this holiday weekend, this season year has been far from perfect for business owners. De Clue said he has been impacted by the supply chain crisis and staffing shortage.

"We’ve been using a lot of our European vendors, and shipping it via air and not containers saved our business this year," said De Clue. "The lack of people looking for work has been a challenge for us. We have a lot of people working for us who are working two to three days a week and maybe even one day a week. So we have lots of staff, but only one or two people a day."

On Monday, the Bon Collection’s glittering holiday display continued to draw customers in.

"I think this is a wonderful, fun store. I haven’t been in it before, but it has a lot of very interesting, fun things," said Linda Finch. "It’s been beautiful fun. Everything is getting nicely decorated to get you in the spirit."

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