In early spring 2020, Randy Chen experienced one of the fights of his life, a battle with COVID-19. It was a harrowing affair that sparked deep fear and had the president of New Jersey-based Impex International, hunkering down in isolation for weeks. He candidly shared about the experience in a Promo Insiders podcast back in April, making him one of the first promo pros to publicly recount their fight with the virus when it was still new and so much was uncertain. We wanted to check back in with Randy to see how he and his business are faring as 2021 dawns. What follows are paraphrased excerpts from Randy’s recent chat with Counselor Executive Editor Christopher Ruvo.

Randy Chen survived a battle with COVID-19.

Q: How are you doing? Are you experiencing any lingering effects from COVID?
Randy Chen: Sometimes, you just got to play the card that was dealt to you and at the height of my ordeal, I lost about 40 pounds. I just didn’t eat for about 10 or 11 days and then when I started getting better, I gained about 20 pounds back. So, I was saying jokingly that this is my COVID-19 diet plan.

Listen to Randy discuss some of the physical struggles he went through with COVID and learn how he's doing now.

Q: There’s one upside to all of this: You get to wear those hip pants now. I’m glad there’s one good thing to come of this. We’re joking around of course, and you’re doing well now, but this was a serious ordeal you went through. You were in isolation for weeks. How long exactly was it?
RC: We didn’t know how long it would be from when I would stop being infectious so, just out of an abundance of caution, I just stayed in and I didn’t really set foot on the first floor of my house until around the 20th of April. That’s close to 35 days.

Q: So, you were in your basement and we were joking before we got on the call that it’s not really a basement, it’s a “lower level living area.” It’s a nice finished area. For the previous podcast, you kind of walked us around the basement so it wasn’t like you were in a dungeon or anything like that but still you were down there for a while.
RC: I got my TV, I got my own bathroom, and you know the best part about it looking back is I kind of maximized my time. I just started trying to get myself back in shape. You have dinner by yourself, you have lunch by yourself and you pretty much just sit there and all you do is just kind of watch TV and go online and then try to get some work done. So, at other times, I was just trying to get myself back in shape on a treadmill, working out, lifting weights.

Q: Coming out of isolation, was it a little weird trying to readjust to life?
RC: I’ll tell you that in June I traveled to South Carolina. A lady sat next to me on the plane. She was very, not paranoid, but very cautious. I immediately told her, “I just want you to know that I’m probably the safest person in this airplane” because I knew I was no longer contagious and that I had antibodies. I told her my story and then I showed her a news article about me. You could really immediately sense like a relief from her because you don’t know who you are sitting next to. So, that’s what I always do: I just like to tell people, just kind of be transparent about my story.

Q: Your illness was tough on your family. How are they doing?
RC: Everybody is fine. I gave my second boy, Christopher, COVID, but he’s a young kid – he’ll be 22 years old soon – and he slept it off in like 30 hours. His symptoms broke on a Friday and he felt fine by Saturday night.

Q: How’s business been?
RC: We’re not going to sugarcoat it: Business has been tough. Our sales are down 60%. That number is very similar to what I’ve heard from our industry. Selling to states, PPE, masks, sanitizers – that’s the only thing that’s been selling. The stuff has to be COVID-related. I’m sure that most of our suppliers and distributors are facing the same situation.

Listen to Randy discuss the impact COVID has had on his business.

Q: From a business perspective, is it encouraging to see vaccinations begin? Do you think, with mass distribution, we can get back to something close to normal?
RC: Absolutely, absolutely. I just think that anything we can do to help we have to do. We got to get everything back on track. Hopefully, the elections will be behind us now and we can just get everybody back working.

Q: So, to that point, how do you kind of see 2021 going for the promo industry? Do you have a feeling on how we’ll fare as a whole?
RC: One of the biggest things I’m afraid of is that when people are desperate, they’re going to try to disrupt the system. When everybody’s hurting, everybody wants to sell and everybody wants the best price and a lot of suppliers, they don’t care, they don’t really care about our system of supply chain. They will try to sell to the end-user.

Q: So, your big worry is that a lasting negative effect from COVID will be a disruption to the traditional supply chain of the industry?
RC: We’re not going to see this with all people going direct and everything, but I’m just saying it’s going to be more prevalent with people buying directly and not really respecting the supply chain that we have.

Q: Do you think that 2021 will be a better year for promo than 2020?
RC: Absolutely. I long for the day that we’ll go out in the park and listen to an outdoor concert series and we’ll have many businesses out there with their own tents out, saying, “Come visit us, get some free popcorn, get some free travel mugs.” We need to get back to those days.

Q: Any final thoughts?
RC: I’m very blessed. I know that I’m very lucky compared to some people (who had COVID). Also, take little precautions; just be smart about it. Put on the masks, put on the shields … but also live. I told my wife, “We have to live, we can’t be staying in this house. I mean, I like you and all, but the fact is we’ve got to do something.”

Q: Randy, I always appreciate your perspective. Thanks so much for chatting. We’re really happy to see you doing well. I have faith that next year’s going to be a better year for you and for our industry. Hopefully, we can do this again and talk about how sales are up 80% in 2021 over your 2020.
RC: Absolutely, absolutely and we appreciate it. I really appreciate you guys checking back in with me and allowing me to share my story. Like I said, 2020’s been interesting and then we can put it behind us.