KENTWOOD, Mich. — The holiday shopping season is in full swing at Woodland Mall in Kentwood, but one local business owner says his store isn't seeing the holiday traffic like years past.
Rob Rex II, owner of My State Designs, says 2025 has been challenging for his business, which offers Michigan-themed merchandise, munchies and more across 5 locations in West Michigan.
"This year, across the board, each store is down between 50 and 70% which you cannot prepare for — you don't plan for that," Rex said.
The sales decline is particularly puzzling because foot traffic remains steady; it's a sales problem, not a foot traffic problem.
"They're all 1,000 people in a day. But yet our Tanger store is doing like, three, four times the sales over," Rex said. "Like, our River Town store, even though they're getting the same people through the door, I don't understand that."
The trend hasn't improved during what should be the busiest shopping season of the year.
"Our November was substantially lower. Our Black Friday was lower. We were thinking like, is there a glitch? Is there a glitch in the system?" Rex said.
His Woodland Mall location has been operating for 5 years but has changed locations 3 times within the mall. Rex believes this has confused customers who return to old locations and assume the business has closed.
"Customers go back to our old location and we're gone, they think that we have closed, and then they go shop online, because where else are you going to go?" Rex said.
Rex emphasizes his commitment to the local community compared to online retailers.
"We are as local as it gets. So we are here. We spend our money here. We live here. Online, you really don't know where you're getting it from," Rex said.
If the sales trend continues, Rex says it could lead to difficult decisions about his business and 37 employees.
"I hate making those decisions. Hate it. Everyone knows. Everyone in my shop knows I hate that, because I think of their family, their kids, their health, or everything," Rex said.
Despite the challenges, Rex remains committed to keeping his business running.
"If I were doing it for me, I'd have been done a while ago," Rex said. "Doing it for them, so I think it's my kids and then my employees' kids. That's why we're grinding like we do."
One of the ways Rex hopes to curb any potential losses is to push for more online sales in 2026 while also keeping his 5 stores up and running.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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