The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on most everyone, but among those hardest hit has been our small businesses in the county.
“This has been catastrophic to most of our businesses, excluding the grocery and drug stores and our Dollar Generals,” said Shelia Freely, executive director of the Calhoun Economic Development Association. “With the shut down of our schools, manufacturers, churches, plus the shelter in place order, there has been very limited vehicle travel in our county and much less foot traffic in our stores. This has resulted in many families only purchasing necessities.”
“The hardware, parts and appliance stores seem to have about a 50 percent reduction in store traffic and sales. Our farmers are continuing with their corn planting and sweet potato bedding, as weather permits. It is apparent now, more than ever, of how much a dollar turns over in our economy. It is a cycle of buy-sell and when any part of the cycle is stopped or broken, it stops the entire cycle.”
Noel Tunnell, owner of Noelle’s Boutique on South Newberger in Bruce, said this time of year is supposed to be great for her business.
“This is normally my busy time of year with Easter, banquets, graduations, etc. But, with all of that being canceled, and us being mandated to shut down, it’s had a huge financial impact on my business,” she said. “Since I’m self employed, I have a hard time receiving benefits. I have been closed to the public for almost a month now. I have applied for unemployment, grants, you name it. As of today, I still haven’t received any help and bills still have to be paid. We understand why it had to be done, but it’s been hard.”
Noel Tunnell
“Moving forward, I am nervous about reopening, because we definitely don’t want to contribute to the spread of the virus,” Tunnell said. “I have no idea what to expect business wise. Will it pick back up like normal? Will it be slow for a while? I guess it’s a wait-and-see kind of thing.”
Kim Kendall, owner of Timberville on Main Street in Vardaman, shares Tunnell’s concerns.
“The shut down has affected us tremendously. As we are a small business, we depend mainly on the local schools and businesses, and our community support. Without that support, we are at a complete loss,” Kendall said. “We did have a few local customers that placed orders that we could have printed ourselves while keeping the storefront closed, but our shirt supplier in Texas was also shut down for a period of time. Now that the supplier is open again, there are no orders.”
“Our biggest concern is will we be able to rise above this financial strain? Being self employed, and having no employees, we have not been able to receive any financial help whatsoever. No unemployment, no small business loans,” Kendall said. “We have had to rely solely on personal credit to survive not only personally, but also to attempt to keep from falling so far behind on business expenses. Are we creating a bigger disaster for ourselves? Will we be able to come back and reopen? The uncertainty is really depressing, but also gives us great fear for our future business.”
Ellen Shaw, an alderwoman in Bruce and owner of Jeffery’s on the Bruce Square, fears what the new normal may be.
“The shutdown has cut our business tremendously. As per the governor’s orders, not many people are out. The pandemic has canceled wedding and baby showers and postponed many weddings, which directly affects our business,” Shaw said. “My biggest concern going forward would be how to safely open all businesses. I would love to have our lives back the way they were before all of this, but I think we will have to accept a new normal.”
“It’s been incredibly hard. This is my livelihood as well as Annette (Haire) and Jessica’s (Barefield). We are workers by nature, so not coming to work is hard. Also, not being able to meet our clients’ needs is difficult,” said Kim Havens, owner of Kim & Company Salon on South Newberger in Bruce. “We’ve created bonds with each other and our clients. Many clients come weekly, so not seeing them feels foreign. Their needs and concerns have become ours so not seeing them means not knowing how they’re doing.”
“We are self employed, so no work means no money. The bills don’t stop coming, even during a pandemic, so there’s definitely that! This has never happened so it’s new to us all,” Havens said. “We have closed collectively only a few times for funerals, but never under mandate and never for a long period of time. My biggest concern moving forward, well there are many. Probably most important is the concern of keeping the safest environment possible for our clients and ourselves. Their safety is of the utmost concern.”
“Opening back, there’s lots of questions. Will the virus pick back up? Could we possibly take something home to our loved ones? Many, many questions I ask myself. It’s not just about us, many factors are to be included. I am confident though. It will get better. I’m also prepared that it will take time. This won’t be fixed or go away overnight. And if this quarantine has taught me anything, it is definitely patience. I pray about it daily. I’m determined to take care of what matters and everything else will fall into place.”
Ann King, owner of Artifacts antique store on Bruce Square, took an active approach to the coronavirus and has tried to utilize her online platforms to keep customers updated on the business status. They closed their store on March 14.
“I sent out emails to all our sweet brides and grooms who had registries letting them know we were still there for them. Of course social distancing and limited number of gatherings have caused showers to be canceled, but I’ve had a few inboxes, emails and phone calls about bridal registries. We have received several checks and credit card payments for some of the brides and grooms and I’ve inboxed each couple to let them know the money is there for them whenever things are back to normal. Other than those bridal gifts, we have had zero sales because we are doing strict zero contact. I’ve had folks ask to come privately to store while we’re closed. We are not doing that.”
“Regardless of what the government decides this week or next week, Artifacts won’t be open until at least the end of April. We’ll see how it goes then.”
Delta’s Drapery and Design in Calhoun City is labeled a non essential business by state regulations during the ongoing pandemic, preventing them from being able to operate.
“During the downtime, we focused on sewing masks from home for donations to anyone that needed them, organization and cleaning in the workroom and reaching out to customers to make them aware when they can expect to receive orders,” said owner Karan Nestor. “My main focus was to apply for financial assistance through the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and the Paycheck Protection Program. However, we haven’t received any feedback, so far. Now that we know that the first round of funding has been depleted we don’t know what the future holds for us. Not only is the business affected but, our team has been deeply touched by the loss of income.”
“Our gravest concern is the length of time that it will take for the economy to rebound because even though there is no cash flow, we have to keep the lights on in anticipation of the day we can resume operations. We don’t foresee returning to full capacity for months due to the loss of sales,” Nestor said. “One aspect that has a tremendous impact on our business is that our vendors are located in larger cities that remain closed, as well. So, even when our state lifts the shelter in place executive order, we cannot receive essential products until other states reopen.”
“We are praying that the economy will rebound, quickly. Delta’s has been immensely blessed in the first five years of business and we are thankful for the support of our customers,” Nestor said. “The most important thing is that our team is healthy and we remain hopeful.”
Nancy Bennett, owner of Veronica Kate’s floral and gift boutique on South Newberger in Bruce, said they’re doing all they can to keep business going.
“My employees, vendors and I have had a hard time of it. I’ve continued to post photos on our facebook page and advertise in the CCJ. We’ve used PayPal for payments of ‘held’ items, made contact free deliveries to the funeral homes and cemeteries. We’re doing all we can to meet the needs of our customers while following the directions of the governor, since flowers and gifts are considered nonessential,” Bennett said. “Spring is one of our best seasons for sales, and now we’re just hoping when we can get back open that our customers will shop local and help us all out. Owning a small business in a small town isn’t for the faint of heart already, but times like these you need to put the betterment of the community above all and not just think of your immediate needs.”
The Calhoun City Chamber of Commerce, which would normally be deep into planning the annual SquareFest celebration on the town square, is caught in limbo.
“We’ve had to cancel so many events that provide much needed funds for our organization to cover the shortfall of dues within our budget,” Chamber President Laura Edwards said. “We are very up in the air on the festival in May and afraid that even if we can have it the economic impact will be so great that it won’t provide the usual monies we desperately count on.”
Mark Tedford owns Bruce Dry Cleaners on the Square and CC Cleaners in Calhoun City.
“It’s hurt me. I’m not going to lie about it,” Tedford said. “No church, no weddings, no funerals, no graduations. This is supposed to be my busy time of year.”
Tedford said he has been forced to cut back all he can. He reduced his pressing from five to three days a week.
“You don’t want to do that because my employees need to work too, but we don’t have a lot of options. We cut where we can to survive and hope things get better.”
Freely is optimistic about the future, but also recognizes there may be permanent changes to our lives here in Calhoun County as a result of this pandemic.
“I fully anticipate things will return to some kind of normalcy after this, but I do anticipate many changes,” Freely said. “Telework, telemedicine, on-line classes, etc., will probably be incorporated into our new normal.”
“I have worked with most of our local employers and business owners, providing them with information on all federal and state programs and what funds are available to them to stay in business or save their business. All of our banks, along with the SBA, have been working very hard to help our employers and business owners with these programs.”
“I have also worked with many of our citizens to help them get their unemployment applications submitted, corrections made and verified.”
“I hope all of our existing businesses will be able to weather this pandemic and can re-open as soon as it is safe. I hope our manufacturers will have orders to fill when this is over and they can put their employees back to work, stabilizing their company and their employees’ financial condition.”
“When things do return to normal, my biggest concern is most families will be behind on their mortgage payment, car payment, utilities, etc., and they will be financially insecure. This may further limit their ability or desire to shop and spend money on non essential household items.”
“With challenges like this, changes will come, but hopefully for the better. Our employers and citizens know how to survive hard times and working together, I think we will see brighter days ahead.”