Not every small business is opening their doors to the public as soon as the stay at home order expires Monday in Minnesota.
Gov. Tim Walz announced Wednesday that the order, which has been in effect since March 27 to allow officials to buy time to build hospital and ICU capacity, build a reserve of critical care supplies, and slow the spread, would not be extended. Retailers can open to 50% with plans for protecting customers and employees and physical distancing, and gatherings of 10 or fewer are permitted with physical distancing (preferably outdoors and with plans in place for entrances and exits). Some business owners are ecstatic and some other organizations want the dial turned even more.
Two WCCO Radio talked to, who happen to be Bloomington Avenue neighbors in south Minneapolis, said it came down to not wanting to potentially risk their customers’ health with much still unknown about the virus.
Meg Niesen, owner of indie bookshop The Irreverent Bookworm, said her team grappled with the decision, and it wasn’t until Thursday night that she decided she did not want to take the gamble.
“It really came down to: OK, this might lose us business. It might lose us money. This might be the reason we don’t make it through. But I would rather sleep at night knowing that it didn’t cost lives,” Niesen said. “It might cost money, but it didn’t cost lives. That’s really the deciding factor at this point: we don’t know everything about this virus and I don’t want to be on the side where we weren’t cautious enough. I would rather be made fun of for being overly cautious than opening everything up and we suddenly realize that this caused many, many people and their families to get sick.”
Walz said his administration will turn the dial right back if there is a spike in cases. The Department of Health is watching several metrics including case doubling rate (12 days as of Friday), the rate of positives with increased testing capacity (Minnesota has posted its most and second-most single-day highs for testing Wednesday and Thursday) and community spread. Testing has increased in Minnesota but so do cases and deaths.
Niesen said they have a well-researched plan in place to safely open with little lead time when they do feel the time comes, even studying the blueprint of her small shop. She’s not certain on an exact date, but is closely monitoring the news, MDH and the CDC and the “general social climate.”
“What is our community saying? What are they comfortable with?” she said.
She’s also watching the impact of opening up in other states.
“We’re really playing everything day-by-day and hour-by-hour,” Niesen said.
Cat Polivoda, owner and only full-time employee of Cake Plus-Size Resale, closed the shop before it was mandated out of an abundance of caution. She weighed the same dilemma of health risk versus business health and found both supported her choice to not open.
“In addition to wanting to prioritize people and my community and the safety of everyone around which is obviously my first priority,” she said, “my second priority is the longevity of my business, and I’m not convinced that opening up sooner than later is going to be the best financial decision.”
Both say they’ve heard positive feedback from customers and they’re continuing to run their business through shipping and curbside pick-up.
“I think, while they’re happy to support,” Polivoda said of customers, “I don’t get the vibe that most of them are excited to be out and about shopping like normal.”
Both Polivoda and Niesen say business has been stable. Niesen has been able to pay the staff, which is working remotely from home, and keep them on payroll. Polivoda secured a PPP small business loan.
“We are very optimistic that we can make it through this to the point where it will be safe to open our physical door again,” Niesen said.
Polivoda says whether opening or not, supporting small businesses by buying online, purchasing gift certificates or giving them a boost on social media should be a priority because the pandemic has been hard on all of them.
“Of course there’s this desire to snap our fingers and be back to ‘normal’ but even if we’re open, things aren’t going to be back to normal. As small businesses we’re still not going to be doing well financially. This is going to continue to be a prolonged blow for us for a very long time,” she said