Gov. Tim Walz is expected to announce Wednesday if the current four-week “pause” will continue past its Friday deadline.
A group says approximately 160 businesses plan to defy if it continues past Dec. 18.
The executive order restricts in-person dining, youth sports, gyms, fitness and recreation centers and social gatherings with people outside your household.
According to Minnesota Department of Health data from mid-November before the dial-back, indoor service at bars and restaurants was by far the leader in the origin of outbreaks and related confirmed cases. By mid-November, 139 bars and restaurants were associated with 2,766 cases including customers and employees. That’s compared to 41 cases associated with five outbreaks at salons and barbershops. The data identified 48 outbreaks at 46 fitness centers leading to 749 known cases.
The grassroots group called the ReOpen Minnesota Coalition said about 160 small businesses plan to defy the Governor and open their doors, even if he extends the pause.
“They want to save the business because it’s their life’s dream,” said Darius Teichroew, spokesman for the coalition comprising bars and restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, hotels, dance studios and more. “They’ve been working so hard for so many years to build it so obviously they don’t want to see that disappear. But a lot of these business owners are just as concerned about their employees.”
Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office has taken action against two restaurants for defying the order, one in East Grand Forks, the other in Lynd. A judge issued a temporary restraining order in both cases. The office has said suspending a liquor license is a possible outcome. He also filed a lawsuit against a fitness center in Plainview.
The hospitality industry in Minnesota has long lobbied for decreased restrictions to keep businesses afloat, but small gyms are in the same precarious and stressful situation.
“When people think of gyms, they think of the Lifetime Fitnesses, the bigger gyms where it’s hundreds of people coming out each day,” Andrea Nisler, owner of Timberwolf Fitness in Roseville, which is not affiliated with the coalition, said. “For ours, we’re 6,000 sq. ft. so if we keep classes to 10 people, that’s still ample space. It impacts us a bit more because our membership is much, much lower than a bigger gym, so losing one or two members has a great impact versus the other gyms that wouldn’t blink an eye losing a handful of members.”
Nisler said there was a large drop-off in membership in the spring—and while the idea of an extended shutdown, she admitted, even feels “routine” with equipment rented out and classes over Zoom, she’s preparing herself for the worst. Clients who have stuck around have been supportive, but she’s planning to drop prices if the pause is extended without being able to offer in-person classes.
Marcus Watson, a trainer and owner of 57Fitness, which is also not associated with the coalition, said his business thrives on community. With his exercise philosophy of “all bodies are good bodies” and “everybody deserves to be in the gym” he’s concerned about the wellbeing of his clients and potential ones.
“For someone who was just becoming motivated and comfortable with the gym, to say, ‘You can’t go,’ that’s a detriment to their health, and that’s going to have long lasting effect because maybe they won’t come to the gym after this just for the simple fact they had finally decided to take that stride in the positive direction and now it’s closed down and they lose that motivation,” he said. “It’s been hard for a lot of people.”
Even with researchers’ attention on studying the coronavirus, little information has been gathered about the role of gyms in spreading the virus, especially considering how widespread the virus is in places like Minnesota. Epidemiological data shows extended indoor periods near other people, particularly when talking, yelling or breathing hard, can accelerate the flow. Nisler said the gym helped crowdfund for a large air purifier and she taped off 10 x 10 foot workout spaces to allow for maximum distancing. Both want people to feel safe coming to the gym both now and in the future.
“You lose five members, that’s not just five members that month,” Nisler said. “You’re also losing their membership income for the next couple months and it just keeps piling on. Closing us down, people then, whether they know it or not, maybe think gyms are dangerous.”
Both Watson and Nisler said data needs to take into account the type of gym instead of lumping large and small ones together. Watson said he believed there were some bad apples not enforcing safety restrictions enough, but an environment where every person is accounted for, every visitor can be traced to a specific time, and the eases in communicating with other members about testing are advantages over bars and restaurants, for example.
Some business owners might feel like they have no choice, but others adhering to the executive order hope the toll does not get worse.
“We’re a small business, so when we get paid we are feeding our families, we’re making sure we have a roof over our heads and we’re making sure we can provide for our community, but that's difficult to do when we’re not operating at our capacity,” Watson said.
“I don’t think there’s an easy answer to any of this,” Nisler said. “It’s not like pandemics come and go. We’re all learning. Hopefully we do take away something or start to appreciate our small businesses a little more.”
“It really comes down to a matter of desperation. It's not like we’re trying to raise a rebel army to charge in St. Paul or anything like that. These people are just trying to provide for their families,” Teichroew said.
