When Youâre a Small Business, E-Commerce Is Tougher Than It Looks Consumersâ pandemic reliance on online ordering benefited the giants. For many independent retailers, it helped keep the doors open. The family-owned and -operated Holiday Market in Royal Oak, Mich., began building its online operation in 2019, a move that gave it the chance to keep humming when the pandemic began.Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York Times March 7, 2021 A chair sits in the middle of Holiday Market, a specialty grocer near Detroit, and if customers are lucky, theyâll find Tom Violante Sr. sitting in it. The 91-year-old founder still comes to work most days â and he knows where everything is in its 60,000 square feet.