Coming together through a pandemic

Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Back in March, the world shut down. People were holed up in their homes, and local businesses were made to find another way to get by. For some, business was nigh impossible or somewhat challenging. For others, there wasn't much of a drop, just a different way of doing things.
Regardless of what effect it had, local businesses were one of the things most affected by COVID-19.
Since the world has started opening up again, things have been slowly getting a little better for many businesses; however, there is still concern surrounding the pandemic, and a lot of businesses are still having to take certain precautions against spreading the virus.
So, how did they do it? Many feared for local businesses and thought that this might do a lot of them in; however, Monticello is still thriving today. So how did our local businesses manage to stay afloat during this time?

Over at Flatwoods Cafe
Owned by Amy Sanders, it was a bit rough, but they made it through with the community's help. When the pandemic first hit, they started with take-out only and had that for a while. They also lost a few employees who were fearful for their health, but since then have been able to hire even more.
Sanders said that the community really came out and helped support them, coming and ordering take out, sometimes eating it in the parking lot while in their cars.
Flatwoods cafe has since reopened their dining area, but they are only open at 50% capacity. During this time, they did have some government assistance and loans that helped, but the cafe contributes most of their ability to stay afloat to their loyal customers.

Victoria's Boutique
Owned by Victoria and Tom Randle, closed when they were mandated to, but they continued to work inside their store almost every day. Luckily, they had recently opened an online store, which helped them when they couldn't be fully open. So, while they were closed, they filled and mailed online orders. However, because they were in the store a lot, people walking by would see them inside. The potential customers would knock, and the Randles would let them in, one at a time and at a safe distance, to look around. After a few of these occurrences, they set up a sign that said that it was okay to knock, and they'd let customers in in one at a time. These two things combined really helped them stay afloat until the state allowed businesses to open back up. Once businesses were allowed to be officially open again, Victoria Randle said that business really picked back up. People came in from all around. They were surprised at the amount of business they got after they reopened. "People wanted to get out of Tallahassee," Randle said, and they were thankful for the business.
Despite the pick-up in business, the summer was still off for them, compared to the past. Business is now a bit better, but it's still just slower than it generally is. But Randle believes that it should start picking up for Christmas. Despite the ups and downs, Randle says she was never really scared. "I just had faith in the Lord," she stated.

Traditions
Owned by Heather Futrell, said their business didn't die. "We haven't seen any impact at all, really," she said. As Traditions is a printing business, making custom shirts, uniforms and the like, they didn't necessarily have to shut down. People could still place orders and have things made for them. It didn't require as much contact as other businesses.
Futrell had bought the business in February, and when COVID-19 hit in March, they were a little worried, but there really was no dip in business or a slow time at all over the summer. As no one knew what was going on with schools, she still had lots of orders for things such as uniforms and custom backpacks. "It really was quite busy," Futrell stated. "I had to hire employees. I couldn't handle it all on my own."
Along with Traditions, Futrell had also been trying to open another business, Rust & Rose, with her friend. There were times she was really concerned and wondered if she was stupid for trying to continue her dream of opening the business. Still, she kept pushing, opening Rust & Rose on Aug. 1. Since then, business has been really good for both Rust & Rose and Traditions, and Heather Futrell is happy to have taken the risk on her businesses.

At the Monticello Opera House, things were a bit more drear. As the Opera House is a business in entertainment, they have to meet in person and be close for them to function. But being close together is precisely what this pandemic is keeping people from being able to do. The Opera House had to shut down for three months in the spring, therefore not finishing their spring season, but they did do some programming in late June and July. After that, they did have to kind of shut down again, canceling their September and October shows, but they've very recently started opening back up with some fall programming!
To stay afloat while being shut down for so long, the Opera House applied for loans and grants. They were able to get some of the CARES funds, as well as other loans and grants. Another big help was donations from the community to help the Opera House. They are alright for now, but the longer this goes on, the more critical it becomes for the Opera House. "This health crisis is going to be particularly hard on our industry," Mike Herrin, the manager of the Opera House said. "I read something that even said that live entertainment was going to be some of the last businesses to recover. Just because of fear of the spread of the disease and other factors."
As the Opera House opens back up, they are still maintaining social distancing. This keeps them from actually filling the theater and having the same number of people they generally do for shows. "It's going to be tough," Herrin said, "it's going to be touch and go for a while. Until we can kind of get passed the worst of this."

Rev Cafe
Owned by Joe Costanzo, stayed open but was just take out for about a month and a half. They didn't really struggle too much, Costanzo says, as the community really came out to support them. Of course, there was a drop in sales, as many people just weren't going out to eat anymore. Still, they got creative with their specials and tried out different things to make it easier for customers.
They weren't necessarily prepared for this to happen, but they were ready for something serious, just in case. So the Rev never had to entirely shut their doors. Now that they are fully open again, there is still a bit more business in take-out, but not enough to really be significant. To make it all a little safer, they have moved the tables to be more scattered and will do curbside pick-up if someone asks for it.

Unique Expressions and Northern Gem Designs, were closed most of the time, almost two months. The business, Unique Expressions, had just opened, and, at the time, Northern Gem Designs was a vendor that would set up in the store.
Because they closed the whole time, wanting to be on the safe side, they didn't really have a way of making money off the business. They still had to pay rent on the building, a task generally done by Unique Expressions with vendors, such as Northern Gem Designs, paying an amount for the space as well. Because there was no revenue coming in, they had to pay the rent out of pocket. Luckily, the owner of Unique Expressions, Elizabeth Wright, was able to pay this amount due to her husband's job overseas in the military. She made sure the space was still paid for and that none of the vendors had to pay when they weren't making any money. "We didn't make any money," Shelby O'Brien, owner of Northern Gem Designs, said. "If it wasn't for Elizabeth and her husband picking up the money, it could have been bad." During this pandemic, it was hard to judge how to handle things. O'Brien says that she would have paid to keep the store if she had to, but was very thankful to Wright and her husband for taking up that burden.
Now, Northern Gem Designs has been able to move into the building completely. Both businesses are doing well and doing their best to thrive during this pandemic. They were dead when they first reopened, getting little to no customers, but now it's doing well.
Both Wright and O'Brien say that Monticello is growing and booming right now. They are happy to be a part of the community, which has come together through this pandemic.