Eureka businesses that have recently reopened are reporting customer volumes are still not at the level they need to be for them to succeed.
A handful of Eureka businesses said that they’re necessarily at reduced capacity to ensure they can be open with proper health and safety measures in place, but customer volumes will need to increase if they’re going to survive through the COVID-19 pandemic that has repeatedly caused them to shutter.
Harbor Lanes in Eureka has been open for about a month and its owner Jana Livingston says business has been slow, which tends to be the case in the summertime in general, but she also attributed some of the slowdown in business to the pandemic.
“Part of it is that there are a lot of people that don’t want to come out and partake because of the pandemic,” Livingston said.
Livingston said she hopes business picks up once the weather becomes rainier as it usually does, but in the meantime bowling leagues have been helping keep business moving.
The Grind Cafe in Eureka has had about 50% of the customer volumes it usually would have, which owner J.D. Pegg attributed to the professional offices and the Humboldt County courthouse remaining closed as people work from home and appear remotely for their hearings.
“There used to be a big old rush when those people got out of court,” Pegg said. “Now none of those people are going to court.”
Sal’s Myrtlewood Lounge has also been open for about a month and co-owner Michael Costanzo said business is “nothing like it used to be, but it is definitely picking up and getting better every day.”
Some days are busier than others, such as football Sundays, Costanzo said.
Business owners said it’s partly that people don’t know they’ve reopened. Pegg said people passing by his other establishment, the Siren’s Song Tavern, comment they weren’t aware the business had reopened.
The slowdown in business is also a result of people choosing to be more cautious, the business owners said.
Costanzo said there were some people who were anxious to go back out and get things back to the way they were and another group of people who found they enjoyed staying at home more to going out, beyond the people who are concerned about their health.
Whether the businesses were able to secure financial assistance for the pandemic or not, they said that making ends meet is a struggle and business needs to pick up if they’re going to survive.
Livingston said she was able to secure Paycheck Protection Program funding, but that mostly helped her employees and didn’t help the business cover its expenses as much.
“It’s been terrible for everyone,” Costanzo said. ” … As a business owner, eight months of not having any business sucks.”
Sonia Waraich can be reached at 707-441-0506.
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October 03, 2020 at 07:47AM
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‘8 months of not having any business sucks’: Many report low customer volumes - Eureka Times-Standard
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