Coronavirus - effects on business

[Colin]

Fespa - March 24th-27th - in Europe is expected to cancel this year.

[ericheartsu]

We import alot of promo items from China, and most of the factories are effectively shut down. The virus hit during CNY, which, alot workers go home to be with their families for that. Then with the virus hitting, it shut down cities, roads, and they limited entrance to the cities. So even if factories wanted to resume operations, they didn't have people. Some of our factories are now waiting for the government to come for an inspection so that they may resume work.

Our biggest factory we use is in Hubei, which Wuhan is the capital of the providence. They've been out of production since Dec, and are hoping to resume operations by April...Hope being the key word.

[Maxie]

I order sweatshirts from a factory in Nanchang.
They have started working but not all the workers are back at work.
How are they going to survive?     
Is the USA prepared for Coronavisus?

[Rockers]

In case the outbreak in the US will be too widespread you will see schools being closed, sports venues shut down, trade shows and music gigs being cancelled. If that does not have a knock on effect on the print industry then I don`t know what will.
Don`t want to be too negative here but it`s a real possibility.

[mk162]

Also understand that the virus currently has a 2% mortality rate...this includes underdeveloped nations in this figure.  I heard Iran is closer to 15%.  Here in the states we've had zero fatalities so far.  I read a report today and buried in the bottom it said that the effects on most people will be mild.

I am not saying we shouldn't take it seriously, but the flu kills tens of thousands annually in the US.  I doubt we will see that from this virus.  Let's think back to Sars, Mers, Swine flu, Bird flu and for good measure I will throw in Y2K.

The effects we see here will be economic mostly.  Raw materials and finished goods coming from poorer regions of the world will see the bigger impacts.

[GraphicDisorder]

4 out of 5 people will barely get sick. Most people dying are older or have some other issue that had them weaker anyway.

However:
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wuhan-coronavirus-compared-to-sars-2020-1

So I think it wise to pay attention. But likely USA will see mostly economical impact. But id prepare for slower business and tougher times that may be coming.

[mk162]

The only thing that I do ask is Netflix move up some of their release dates just in case this outbreak gets bad...don't want to miss my shows because I'm dead...

[Maxie]

You wont miss them, you'll have two weeks quarantine to watch them all.

[Jepaul]

At least you aren’t in the airline or cruise business.

This was my flight yesterday to Korea from Seattle and that’s after the plane took off.

[pwalsh]

At least you aren’t in the airline or cruise business.

This was my flight yesterday to Korea from Seattle and that’s after the plane took off.

Best time ever to qualify for a upgrade.  Safe travels!

[zanegun08]

This was my flight yesterday to Korea from Seattle and that’s after the plane took off.

Looks nice, can stretch out for the long flight.
I'm flying from Seattle < Seoul < Ho Chi Mihn on March 30th, hoping that things calm down a little or at least my flight doesn't get canceled.
You stock up on masks before you go?


We have had issues with our factories we work with on headwear and patches, lapel pins, and transfers.  Thankfully we use some India connections as well that have helped bridge the gap that Chinese New Year and the extended closures has brought on.  I think it will take months to really see the effect, but expect way more out of inventory items this year for apparel, and always have a plan b or substitution in mind when selling a product.

[Jepaul]

This was my flight yesterday to Korea from Seattle and that’s after the plane took off.

Looks nice, can stretch out for the long flight.
I'm flying from Seattle < Seoul < Ho Chi Mihn on March 30th, hoping that things calm down a little or at least my flight doesn't get canceled.
You stock up on masks before you go?


We have had issues with our factories we work with on headwear and patches, lapel pins, and transfers.  Thankfully we use some India connections as well that have helped bridge the gap that Chinese New Year and the extended closures has brought on.  I think it will take months to really see the effect, but expect way more out of inventory items this year for apparel, and always have a plan b or substitution in mind when selling a product.

I have this N99 with replaceable filters.  It’s more to make my wife feel better but I’d be pissed on the off chance I didn’t take basic precautions and ended up catching something, whether the basic precautions work or not. 

I’m way more worried about getting stuck over here than I about getting anything.

Show must go on though.  Our HQ is in Seoul so far be it for me to think I’m somehow more important than they are who live there. 

[Maxie]

Nobody has posted for a while.
Here in Israel they decided yesterday that everyone arriving in the country has to go into a 2 week isolation.
This has obviously closed down the tourist industry.     Nobody arriving and nobody will travel if the know that they are going into isolation.
Italy is under lock down, land of Saati, Virus, etc.     How will this effect our industry?
USA seems to be under reporting but the virus seems to be spreading.     They say that because there is no public health system people are not being checked.
Problem with this virus is nobody knows how long it's going to last.
We can only hope for the best.

[ericheartsu]

It's starting to effect our arts and entertainment customers, who are seeing festivals cancelled or moved.

We have a couple of bands on tour right now, who seem to be selling alot of merch. but i'm not sure if their ticket sales have died down yet.

[Maff]

Yeah we just had an order canceled for a band about to go on tour worried that their shows are going to be canceled.

We are in NYS and they just closed down all the SUNY and CUNY schools and are doing remote online classes for the rest of the spring semester.  We usually do a ton of orders for events/groups/clubs for our local SUNY school... not this semester