At a time when it's nearly impossible to predict what any given day - or hour - will bring, Chris Wilson did not anticipate that office chairs would become nearly as sought-after as hand sanitizer in a world upended by coronavirus.
"We were caught off guard as much as everyone else," said Wilson, the CEO of Chattanooga-based Smart Furniture.
For the past week, the business has seen two to three times the normal demand for office chairs as workers move en masse out of their work spaces and into their homes.
"If you look at e-commerce trends overall and people working from home, that's been a long-term trend - but nothing close to this," Wilson said.
Many orders are from individuals, but some are from existing corporate clients who have sent their workers home and want to make sure they're prepared to be productive, Wilson said.
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Elisha Millan stocks shisha at Grass Roots Health on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in Chattanooga. Grass Roots Health is seeing double its normal sales."If you're sitting in a dining chair for even a week, you'll have back problems and feel bad," said Wilson, whose own team has moved to a work-at-home model.
At Grass Roots Health on M.L. King Boulevard, Elisha Millan has seen demand for her hemp and CBD products surge as people worry they may not be able to get out and maintain their supply later. At a time like this, the remedies, which are known for their stress-relieving properties, are essential for many, Millan said.
"Typically, Tuesday is the slowest day of the week for us, but yesterday we had double the normal amount of sales," she said on Wednesday. "People are stressed and they're worried about their health so they're making health-related choices."
They may be worried about access, but Millan has worked with wholesalers to keep products in stock, she said.
"We'll be here as long as people need us to be," said Millan, who has called in additional staff to serve customers. "Even if we're required to close, people can still order online."
JaniKing of Chattanooga has also been swamped with customers looking to deep clean their offices, said Josh Sherwood, the regional director for the cleaning and janitorial franchise. Business has been up about 50% recently, he said.
"In the past couple of weeks we've had a huge number of requests to come in to deep clean offices to get everything to a safe level," he said. "People understand it's a very serious situation, but there are ways to combat this and getting out in front of it and being consistent with cleaning and disinfecting is one of them."
Staff photo by C.B. Schmelter / Jackson Case helps a customer at Grass Roots Health on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, in Chattanooga. Grass Roots Health is seeing double its normal sales.Technology companies are also integral to the new world order as people move online and count on virtual connections to help them keep a safe distance. Kent Davis, owner of ACT Business Machines, said he and his staff are in the business of preparing their clients for a moment like this one.
"We're always trying to put them in a position so they are prepared for the unknown and can be agile," he said.
For the moment, his team has continued to come into the office to rally for their clients, Davis said.
"To some degree, I think we're trying to be there and be available for people so they can continue to be viable," he said. "We could all go to working remotely in about 4 minutes and you wouldn't know they weren't sitting in the office, but it's easier to come in."
Heed Public Relations has also seen a surge in demand for what they do, with clients clamoring for clear information they can share with customers and employees, said David Martin, who co-founded Heed with wife Natalie Martin in 2018.
The Martins had been watching the growing chatter about the virus for a while, and sent an email to all their clients on March 8 offering to work with them to get some messages together. At first, they didn't hear much back. But then things shifted.
"Over the course of the next week it got louder, and toward the end of last week it got insane," David Martin said.
"What we have been dealing with is a lot of clients needing to get information out to their key audiences - internal and external - and updating them on what they can expect from that company based on this ever-changing landscape."
Contact Mary Fortune at mfortune@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow her on Twitter at @maryfortune.