2021 Gumbo final - Book - Page 72
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covid business
C
OVID-19 has ravaged the restaurant industry
and the local economy. With limited seating and
the danger that the virus poses, restaurants are
grappling with the hard reality of indoor dining.
Some local restaurants and businesses have managed to
do better than others, including Schlittz & Giggles, a local
pizza restaurant frequented by some LSU students.
“Our sales have actually been better since the pandemic
started,” Samantha Hughey, an employee at Schlittz &
Giggles, said. While the pizza delivery service hasn’t felt the
impact from the pandemic as severely as other restaurants,
COVID-19 is still taking its toll on the industry.
“Our greatest challenge has been making sure that
customers comply with the mask policy,” Hughey said.
Other restaurants rely on the crowds that local bars and
LSU tailgating brings.
Pluckers Wing Bar, located near Tigerland, has been
struggling since the pandemic started.
There was a COVID-19 outbreak at Tigerland in June and
bars were then closed following Gov. John Bel Edwards’
announcement of statewide bar restrictions on July 11.
Baton Rouge bars reopened Sept. 30 after approval was
granted by Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and the
Louisiana Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control.
Despite bars reopening near Pluckers Wing Bar, General
Manager Norbert Weinert said business has not returned to
what it was before the pandemic.
“We saw less than a fraction of what we normally do,”
Weinert said.
The wing restaurant has seen a multitude of issues take
place since the pandemic began.
“We actually had to cut back our hours,” Weinert said.
“We usually get a big rush when the bars close. It’s nothing
like it was before.” It wasn’t just the closure of the bars on
July 11 that affected the business.
“Football season was bad,” Weinert said. “Sales are not
even close to where they were. Sometimes ten to twenty
thousand dollars less.”
Instead of having to let go of employees, Pluckers Wing
Bar was faced with the opposite dilemma.
“We didn’t have to let go of many employees,” Weinert
said. “A lot of employees didn’t want to work. We’ve had to
begin rebuilding.”
Nearby at The Kolache Kitchen, as students return back to
campus, business is getting better.
“We’re near LSU, so once students left, that affected
business a little bit, but now that school is back, things are
picking up again,” William Hancock, an employee at The
Kolache Kitchen, said. The Kolache Kitchen struggled when
the pandemic first began and orders were slowing down.
“During the start of the pandemic, there were not
enough people buying stuff,” Hancock said. “We had to let
a lot of employees go. Just managers were working.” It’s
not just local restaurants that are feeling the impacts of
the pandemic. The Varsity Theatre is complying with the
governor’s COVID-19 orders which currently has Louisiana
in phase 3 mitigation measures, including a statewide mask
mandate and is closed indefinitely, according to its owner.
The CVS store on Highland Road hasn’t seen as much
business as it usually does, but has started to see more
people come into the store since the start of the second
semester.
“We have slowed down, but since school has started,
we’ve picked up to probably around 60 to 70% of our original
numbers,” Katherine Stracner, an employee at CVS, said.
The main focus at CVS is ensuring that customers are
wearing their masks and staying safe, according to Stracner.
“All of us working at CVS are risking our health with sick
customers coming in just so we can pay the bills, and a lot of
the customers don’t seem to respect that or respect that they
need to wear a mask because we have a lot of kind elderly
customers coming in who have no other choice and need
their medicine,” Stracner said.
Stracner said around 90% of customers wear their mask
when they walk in but for the other 10%, she has to “politely
but forcefully remind them.”
“It’s really disappointing,” she said. “The lack of scientific
literacy and basic human empathy is astounding.”
These are impacts that local businesses could be dealing
with until a vaccine is readily available for the general public
in Baton Rouge.
East Baton Rouge Parish has issued the Paycheck
Protection Plan (PPP) aimed at helping small businesses
receive the help they need. The plan, which started April 3,
2020, provides small businesses with funds to pay up to 8
weeks of payroll costs including benefits.
“Businesses with fewer than 500 employees may be
eligible for forgivable PPP loans for up to 8 weeks of payroll
and other expenses due to the COVID-19 quarantine,”
according to the East Baton Rouge Parish website.