Snowbird influx brings supply and demand challenges to SWFL

Things are getting much busier this time of year in Southwest Florida, and the lack of workers in many industries creates further complications. What are the best strategies for consumers and business owners?

It helps to remember this isn’t just happening in Florida, it’s happening everywhere. And though it may be frustrating to deal with the crowds here longer than usual, mental health experts say we should be thinking about the benefits, too.

The typical range of months in which we have grown used to seeing seasonal guests is expanding. What was once Thanksgiving to Easter is now almost all year long. You may see busier businesses, longer lines and more traffic, but mental health counselor Dr. Laura Streyffeler reminds everyone to be patient and not rush to judgement.

“I think natives and people that live here year-round for years always say, ‘Oh, the snowbirds are coming, oh, we’re going to be inundated,’ you know, as though this is their territory and other people are invading it,” Streyffeler said. “But, really, they’re fueling the businesses, the economy, and they have just as much a right to be here as anybody else.”

She emphasizes that Southwest Floridians should try to keep the bigger picture in mind when feeling inconvenienced by snowbirds this year.

“I think remaining calm… you’d have to look at what’s going on, not only in the world, but your world,” Streyffeler said. “You know, we can’t control what happens, but we can control how we respond to it.”

Streyffeler also says it helps to plan ahead: Don’t wait until you’re on your last roll of paper towels to buy them. That way, you will still ahead if a certain item is out of stock when you go to the store.

Dr. Victor Claar, economics professor at FLorida Gulf Coast University, agrees, saying it’s as simple as this: Good strategies succeed where bad ones fail. But until we know more about what supply and demand is going to look like, there is no right or wrong in what businesses can do.

Claar says it’s still hard to tell why people aren’t returning to the jobs that they used to work pre-pandemic, because there’s no one, specific reason. He has seen employers offer incentives, but that’s not necessarily a reason for every employee to come back. Claar says the pandemic itself pushed many employees past the point of no return.

“Yeah, some of it may be money,” Claar said. “But I think, in many cases, the pandemic was such a disruption, it gave people who have the ability to do so a chance to rethink their lives and how they want to split up family time versus work time and the sort of environment they want to live in. And another big piece that I think people don’t think about, when they first think about restaurant wait times and how long the lines are at Target, is… they don’t think about the fact that [employees are] the people who are assuming the most risk, because the pandemic is still a thing.”

Claar said he has still seen some successful strategies, such as increasing hourly pay, offering signing bonuses or a chunk of money at the start of a new job. With a surge of new people coming in, he says the pressure on businesses is probably not going to get better anytime soon.