Businesses adapt to, recover from COVID-19 pandemic

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When the COVID-19 pandemic turned from murmurs to a loud reality, Seward County Chamber and Development Partnership Executive Director Jonathan Jank and his team knew there was no time to waste.

“It really hit us in March of 2020, and we had a meeting with Four Corners Health Department and I'll never forget this, we were in the basement of the Civic Center and called the business community together,” he said. “They (Four Corners) said this was very real...and at that point, it was looking at what's coming down the pike and how do we help.”

What followed, Jank said, was the creation of a calling tree to call 200 businesses in one day to reassure businesses that the chamber and its partners would do everything possible to help them navigate the rocky terrain ahead.

“We had a lot of appreciative feedback from that, but that was just the start of the craziness,” he said.

Within the first month of the pandemic, restrictions had been put in place that limited capacity indoors and required restaurants and other services to only provide carry out, curbside and delivery for their products.

Jank said these guidelines hit the business community hard and affected each business differently. Some were able to stay in business by adjusting their services, but others were less fortunate.

“The pandemic was individualized to businesses and that's what made it so challenging,” he said. “Some businesses literally had to shut down. We just tried to individualize the support from our organization.”

For a one-person business like Liberty House Bed and Breakfast, the pandemic shutdown was frightening.

“I’ll never forget the first three days,” owner Pat Coldion said. “Everything stopped. I had no income – everyone canceled.”

She said she was able to sustain and support herself and keep going, but it was scary.

“You wonder what the next step is when you realize you can’t meet your obligations,” she said.

Those that were able to stay open had to adapt to new guidelines, such as carry-out only. Tom Reif, owner of Sparetime Lounge and Seward Bowl, said his staff was able to transform the restaurant into a carry-out and curbside operation, but the adjustment came with some unexpected hurdles.

“It was much different,” he said. “Even getting enough boxes was hard. We were scrambling to get anything we could because the demand for boxes was so high.”

Reif said the boxing process required additional help in the kitchen and someone was on staff solely to answer the phones. To-go parking was another addition required for the new style of operation.

Jen Thoreson at JD’s Coffee Shop in Seward said they started to deal with the impacts around spring break. Their college student employees couldn’t come back, so they had to make staff changes.

“Then everything shut down, and it was a complete 180,” she said.

JD’s looked at ways to continue to operate. They went to an online ordering system with curbside delivery to continue to serve their customers. The shop has done something like that on the Fourth of July, Dean Thoreson said.

They added a temporary phone line customers could call when they arrived to pick up their orders.

“We tried to make it as streamlined as we could,” Jen Thoreson said.

Neil Burkholder, owner of Milford Market, said they offered curbside delivery for people who called in orders and established additional health guidelines such as plexiglass shields in front of cash registers and increased sanitization.

Carla Ketner, owner of Chapters Books and Gifts in Seward, said she had to close the doors to the store for two months. During that time, the store continued to offer online orders, delivery and curbside pickup. While in-store traffic was halted, Ketner said their online business boomed.

“We had our online store for years and we'd get maybe two orders a month online,” she said, “but when we closed the store, we were almost overwhelmed with (online) orders.”

Ketner added that her store's sales during the time reflected an increased amount of free time and the desire to find activities to do as a family from the comfort and safety of home. Jigsaw puzzles that had sat on shelves for a significant amount of time soon became difficult to keep in stock.

“At one point, we sold as many jigsaw puzzles in six months in 2020 as we had sold in the entire history of the store,” she said.

Lodging businesses required some of the most unique and unexpected changes, as people had to feel comfortable to stay in a place outside of their homes. Coldiron said it took a little while, but then people started calling to make reservations again.

“They felt safer in a smaller place,” Coldiron said.

She uses all the necessary precautions when it comes to sanitizing her rooms.

“I get anything that kills 99.9%,” she said with a laugh.

She pays more attention to sanitizing and even does the doorknobs, she said.

“You think of things you haven’t before,” she said.

In order to attract more customers and encourage people to come through the doors, businesses got creative and found new promotions and incentives to offer to customers who patronized their shops.

Jank said from the chamber's perspective, they worked on ways to inject money into the local economy while encouraging people to continue to shop locally. The chamber offered incentives, including a promotion where $50 spent at a store would come with a $15 Chamber Buck reward, as well as gift card promotions as well.

“It really forced innovation,” Jank said.

Sparetime Lounge's innovation turned heads while providing an additional need in yet another unexpected turn taken by pandemic. Reif said that, in late March, the restaurant began offering a free roll of toilet paper with take out orders, as increased demand led to a toilet paper shortage at stores nationwide.

“We had a lot of fun with that,” Reif said. “It was our most successful promotion during this.”

Additionally, Reif said the restaurant offered cocktail kits and to-go drinks, which hadn’t been allowed prior to the pandemic.

Coldiron said she has tried to diversify her business, adding the Little Brown Box Tours, which give people an opportunity to tour different places in Seward County.

“It’s something you can do with your family,” she said.

Coldiron has also had fun with metal yard art, including sasquatch silhouettes.

“I just worked hard and kept my head down,” she said.

While businesses were able to adjust to stay open, traffic and cash flow suffered at many. Reif estimated that business at Spare Time was down at least 45% at the restaurant, and Seward Bowl has been left in limbo as bowlers still haven't fully returned to league competition.

In order to help businesses navigate the loss in revenue and reduction in services, local and state economic development professionals worked to ensure state and federal grants were available to businesses. Jank said the most commonly used program in the area was the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided grants to businesses in order to pay employees. The CARES act also provided a number of grants to businesses, the agriculture industry and other fields directly affected by the pandemic. Jank said local businesses and organizations alone received $4.5 million in CARES Act funding.

Unfortunately, Jank said, some businesses did have to close permanently due to the pandemic as safety guidelines and a loss of business prevented some from operating at all. However, Jank said he was impressed with Seward County businesses as a whole and their response and resiliency in the face of a constantly changing situation. He said he credited that, largely, to the fact that the business community supported one another despite the fact that some businesses are in competition.

“With our #StrongerTogether campaign, it was fun to see the businesses collaborate to support each other,” he said. “There was no hiding that. It was an open collaboration that was so encouraging to see.”

While the landscape of the COVID-19 pandemic has become familiar for business owners, traffic to stores still leaves a lot to be desired, although the situation is improving each month. As cases continue to stay low in the area and the vaccination efforts continue, Reif said he sees returning customers come through the doors that haven’t visited in more than a year. He said he’s certain he’s lost customers for good, but the return of events such as karaoke and the crawfish boil on April 17 give hope that more normal days are ahead.

“Things have been getting better,” Reif said. “As more people get vaccinated, more come back and we’re hoping to have a good summer now.”

JD's is still dealing with shortages in food supplies. Their supplier can’t get some of the items they want because they’re currently not available.

“We’re still missing pieces,” Dean Thoreson said.

He said they didn’t make any changes in the kitchen. JD’s scores very high grades from the health department, but the staff took things up a level, especially when it came to sanitizing.

“We just do it more intensely,” Dean said

Ketner said Chatpers allowed in-store traffic again June 1 of last year and as the situation improves each month, more and more people start to filter in. She said business improves little by little but some customers that frequented the store still haven't returned. However, she said the vaccine has encouraged more foot traffic than previous months.

“A lot of our regulars, we haven't seen in a long time,” she said. “But now that the new CDC guidelines are out, some of our regulars are starting to come back again.”

Around the first of May, JD’s was able to reopen its doors at 50% capacity. They kept curbside delivery for a little longer.

Jen Thoreson said they waited a little longer to open their doors to see what other businesses were doing and challenges they were facing.

Opening the doors again was a great thing, Jen said.

“It made me so happy,” she said. “Both sides felt a loss of connection.”

Dean Thoreson said business dropped when the doors reopened because people were out of their routine.

“There was no flow, no feel,” he said. “It took a couple months to get a food picture of normal.”

He said it took about three months before JD’s was back to normal days.

Like Reif and countless other business owners in the area, the past year has been the greatest test of will and perseverance. Stores and restaurants have done their best to remain open to satisfy needs of customers and volunteers are gearing up for a return of many summer celebrations that drive the economy in summer months.

“It’s humbling,” Coldiron said. “Our community came together and helped businesses. They made a conscious effort to support the local businesses. It was heartwarming.”

Jank said he didn’t know the formula for how Seward collectively navigated the pandemic as well as it did, but knows that how Seward responded is a point of pride for many.

“My first message is thank you. Thank you for your understanding and sticking it through an unprecedented time,” he said. “Some of the lessons we learned are lessons we can take forward. I get the sense this is not a fleeting thing for us.”