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Employees laid off from an Oakland cafe that closed due to the financial crisis caused by the coronavirus collect food items March 18, 2020. (CNS photo/Shannon Stapleton, Reuters)
March 30, 2020
Clare Deignan
Small businesses are struggling through the pandemic a day at a time, with no end date to shelter-in-place orders that have been in force nearly three weeks and no idea how long the recovery might take when the emergency is over.
Michael Norton, president and owner of McCoy Church Goods in San Mateo, said that for the safety of staff and customers the store is accepting orders only by phone and mail. “We’re a bit of a hardware store for churches and so we want to make sure that they have their needs covered, too,” he said.
Norton has not had to lay off anyone at this time. “People aren’t coming in because of the shelter-in-place so we’re going to tap into vacation time and sick leave,” he said.
But looking ahead to the next few months, Norton is unsure how long he’ll be able to pay staff salaries or even the rent.
“I am still trying to figure what that’s going to be like in the next few months, but we’re trying to do our best,” he said. “I’m taking it one day at a time.’
When asked what people can do to support the business, Norton laughed: “I know prayers are free.”
Urban Soul Salon owner Ann Fan is taking the pandemic’s economic fallout one day at a time, too. After immigrating from China, where she had practiced law, Fan had to reinvent her career. In November, she moved to a larger space in San Francisco’s Noe Valley, running her hair salon from the main floor and practicing classical Chinese acupuncture on the lower floor.
She does not face any immediate economic concerns and is focusing on her health: eating and sleeping well.
“I’ve got many clients calling to say, ‘We know we can’t see you, but do you mind if we prepay you to help you out,’” Fan said. “We have a lot of people who care about each other and this is the most important thing for the country. I believe America will be the country to recover first.”
A third small business owner, an electrician, told Catholic San Francisco that he has had to let two employees go and has two remaining. Most of his jobs are ending and he has no new jobs lined up, said the business owner, who asked to remain anonymous for this article.
“It’s a disaster,” he said.
“Now, we are going to have to split jobs, every second day, and decide who goes to work and who stays home,” he said. “It’s a day at a time. I think it’s the same for everybody, so we are going to just have to figure it out.”
Nearly 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance in the week ending March 21 as shelter-in-place orders shut down large parts of the economy, with service industries especially hard-hit. It was the highest weekly number since the U.S. Labor Department began keeping records. The previous record was 695,000 in October 1982.
The current economic downturn is unusual, said Alexander Field, an economics professor at Santa Clara University.
“It’s one that’s specifically caused by various actions governors have ordered to try to flatten the curve, save lives and slow the spread of the virus,” he said. “Other recessions are caused by various factors which cause spending to go down and then … that drags down output.”
Field said the $2 trillion stimulus package passed by Congress and signed by President Trump will offer some relief to small businesses and workers, but he is unsure if it will be enough. He said that no matter how long shelter-in-place orders remain, it will take time to return to normal.
“We don’t have good fix on an exit strategy,” he said.