How Has The Pandemic Impacted Local And Or Small Businesses?

How+Has+The+Pandemic+Impacted+Local+And+Or+Small+Businesses%3F

COVID-19 has impacted many people’s daily lives. What many have considered  “normal” has been put on pause for quite some time.  A lot of people do not completely think of how much has truly changed due to the current position the world is in, but have you ever thought about how the pandemic has impacted local and small businesses?

We, being some of the many other people, feel it is in our best interest to social distance ourselves by staying home as much as possible. 

“There are way less customers coming into the store now due to COVID-19”, Scott Kennedy, the owner of Home Furniture said.  “98 percent of my sales were due to foot traffic.”

The result of social distancing is affecting the profit success in stores. People are social distancing which impacts the businesses rate of customer interaction. 

“Sales have been affected negatively!” Kelly Hightower, manager of Mucho Burrito, said “Our sales have been about 50 percent lower.”

This causes a change in paychecks for a lot of employees. Many of these changes result in employees quitting or being fired. 

“The current employment level is less than 15 percent than before COVID-19,” Kennedy said. 

A great amount of the population does not fully perceive the influence of COVID-19. The ramifications of this pandemic has left businesses success rates to fail.

“Contractors only wanted two people in houses at a time so other companies as well as us had to take turns going in and doing their job,” Julian Encinas, owner of Epic Electric explained. “Plumbers would do what they needed and then they would rotate a new set of contractors in and they would do what they needed to do. This slowed us down and made it harder for us to complete the houses.” 

The rulings implemented as a consequence of the pandemic only make it harder and harder for business to succeed. Multiple factors play a huge role in the decisions of one’s business. 

The new guideline regulations for the safety of the people suggested many businesses to temporarily close down. 

“Materials are now hard to get, shipment is taking longer to receive, it is usually on backorder,” Encinas said. “This means we can not finish houses until the material list is complete.” 

The request of closure upon numerous companies and businesses has only created a negative result towards the way in which companies may choose to  succeed. 

“Yes, actually we did close down in the beginning,” Hightower, said. “It is difficult to say how it may have impacted our business now, but perhaps it has had guests question whether or not they would like to come in.”

Overall, the pandemic spreading throughout the world has done immense damage to the local and small businesses. We hope everyone stays safe and can get through these hard times.