There’s no denying the U.S. is currently confronting one of the most significant public health crises in modern history, coupled with crippling economic turmoil, it’s been mostly bad news.
Now, more than nine months since the first known case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Massachusetts, the state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at 9.6%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the time of writing, more than 365,000 people of the Commonwealth’s workforce are without a job.
The pandemic and related financial fallouts are showing little signs of slowing, as the country faces what’s frequently being dubbed as the “second surge,” with case numbers and the daily positive test rate rising back to levels seen at the virus’ spring peak.
And the Worcester area isn’t immune to coronavirus-caused closures. Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce member businesses Creative Catering, Cherry Blow Dry Bar, and Corner Grille are among those which have shut their doors since March; Armsby Abbey, The Beer Garden, and the DCU Center, have implemented temporary closures in the name of pandemic-presented obstacles.
While some sectors are projected to bounce back quicker than others, for many right now, the future looks bleak. We’re taking a look at the challenges local businesses across different industries are dealing with, the necessary adjustments they’re making, and the innovative solutions they’re engineering to stay open.
Restaurant and Catering
Take Nuestra, for example. The authentic Puerto Rican cuisine restaurant opened up shop on January 6, affording them only a couple months of normalcy before the coronavirus effectively turned the world on its side. “We haven’t even gotten into a regular rhythm; we don’t know what a regular rhythm is,” said Owner Natalie Rodriguez.
Though they never shut their doors, the new eatery had to transition to takeout-only, as sit-down dining was originally prohibited. Ms. Rodriguez says they were already doing a lot of takeout and felt well-prepared to exclusively operate that way, but now had to make several adjustments including buying more to-go containers, figuring out how to package meals to prevent them from getting soggy and ensuring that the food looked as good as it typically did when served on a plate. They also had to quickly activate online ordering and implement curbside pickup.
Even when sit-down dining was given the green light to resume, Nuestra opted out due to their “small dining room” with “already tight spaces,” Ms. Rodriguez said, and didn’t bother pursuing an outdoor dining setup either.
For the new restaurateur, the biggest challenge has simply been getting people to order food in the first place. With catering orders being scratched as gatherings were reduced in size or postponed altogether, Ms. Rodriguez says they’ve missed out on those larger money-makers and the whole graduation party season.
In an effort to keep attracting customers, Nuestra is mixing up their specials to offer unique dishes no one else is, hoping “people eat with their eyes before they eat with their stomachs,” as she put it.
Calling COVID-19 “a sort of blessing in disguise” for how the community has come together to support one another, Ms. Rodriguez said it certainly hasn’t been the start to the business she was looking for, but they’ve “learned from it, grown from it, and just keep pushing on.”
TEE’s Deli and Catering, on the other hand, is another story. Owner Tom Erickson’s main job is running the cafeteria at National Grid’s Worcester location, but he’s permitted to do outside catering jobs. His biggest clients besides the electric company are the athletic departments of both College of the Holy Cross and WPI. “Since early March, I’ve had absolutely zero catering jobs from Holy Cross and WPI,” Mr. Erickson said, adding that while there are normally 300 people working in the National Grid building, the company has gone mostly remote, with no more than 50 people now working in-person.
In June, National Grid temporarily shut down the cafeteria, leaving TEE’s with the sole option of outside catering gigs — which are proving to be hard to come by.
Marking just how difficult the times really are, in a late-October interview, Mr. Erickson said, “This week I have zero jobs. Normally this time of year, when there are a lot of office meetings getting quarterly things ready, I’d probably have between 12 and 20 jobs, depending on what’s going on,” in addition to the local college football games every Saturday. Likewise, while TEE’s typically books 20 to 30 large barbecue events a year, they’ve only done two so far in 2020.
For the time being, he’s surviving off smaller jobs like boxed lunches and catered dinners for four. “I do anything just to stay alive,” said Mr. Erickson, who even laid himself off in order to bring back his chef.
“Because I don’t have a storefront and people can’t come in the [National Grid] building, I’ve been doing free deliveries […] I’m using Facebook a lot, and my daughters are getting me into Instagram to help me market a little better.” He’s also been cutting his prices — despite rising product costs — just to stay competitive.
Switching up weekly specials like kabobs, chicken piccata, and breakfast pizza, Mr. Erickson says he tries to stay positive and think outside the box, but “it’s just sad. Seeing all these mom-and-pops go down — watching them for these six, seven, eight months and now knowing I might be one of them — it’s tough.”
Hospitality and Entertainment
If any industry is suffering as much as or more than the food and restaurant industry, it’s hospitality and entertainment. As more Americans forego leisurely activities and recreational travel, companies like hotels, event venues, movie theaters, and arcades are struggling to attract business.
The Beechwood Hotel is certainly feeling the strain. After temporarily closing at the end of March in the interest of their employees’ and guests’ safety, the Plantation Street hotel opened again on June 8 with new health protocols in place. Masks are required, temperatures are taken, social distance markers are used on the floors, hand sanitizer is readily available throughout, and common areas like the lobby are cleaned every hour on the hour. When it comes to the guest rooms, there’s no more room service or takeout, no coffee station, as well as a complete disinfecting process plus a full 24 hours of vacancy between guest stays.
Yet, even with all these precautions in place, they aren’t seeing occupancy reach pre-pandemic levels. According to Sayed Saleh, managing director at the Beechwood, the hotel is seeing almost half the number of people they saw before the coronavirus outbreak, and is employing roughly 30 of their original staff of 90.
Mr. Saleh says the restrictions on event sizes is partly to blame for their downtick in business. Though many weddings, seminars, and conferences were being postponed or canceled, when Massachusetts was limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people, the Beechwood was seeing some revenue from “micro-weddings:” smaller receptions of 18 or 20 people.
While times are dark now, Mr. Saleh believes he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Definitely we have been impacted [by the virus], but we are encouraged by the signs we’re seeing lately. We’re encouraged by the pickup — it’s small, but nevertheless, it’s a pickup in the rooms and small functions booked.” His confidence stems from the “vibrant community” the Beechwood finds themselves situated in. “We have faith in Worcester and what Worcester has to offer, and we have faith that, in the long run, we will see change.”
It’s a similar feeling at downtown Worcester’s Hilton Garden Inn. They, too, are being thorough with cleaning efforts. Their “CleanStay” program is a commitment to consistent sanitization of high-touch areas and other safety measures like contactless check-in, virtual room keys, protective plastic wrap on TV remotes, and door seals which indicate when a guest room has been cleaned.
Plus, bipolar ionization system technology has been installed in the HVAC systems to ward off airborne spread of COVID-19. Director of Sales and Marketing at the Hilton’s Worcester location, Emily Mulhane, says this AtmosAir system, proven to neutralize coronavirus air particulates by 99.92%, was a “significant investment” by the property’s owner to keep guests and employees safe. “We want people to travel. We want them to feel safe traveling. We want them to know we’re doing everything possible to go the extra mile and make sure they have that peace of mind,” she said.
Still, like others in the industry, downtown Worcester’s largest hotel isn’t immune to the repercussions of the virus, experiencing sizable layoffs and not yet seeing a return to their pre-pandemic occupancy levels. As the host hotel for a majority of conventions in the area, Ms. Mulhane chalks up a large chunk of their losses to the DCU Center remaining closed and the state’s caps on gatherings.
The DCU Center “is a huge revenue stream for us,” she said. “For a typical convention, you’re looking at anywhere from a 50 to a 100 room nights. So, it’s a significant loss to have the DCU Center closed, but obviously, even if they were open, they really couldn’t host that number of people,” because of crowd restrictions.
In an attempt to offset the revenue loss, Hilton Garden Inns across the country are offering creative promotions and programs designed to get more people through their doors, like their essential traveler discount and “WorkSpaces by Hilton.” This new program promises a “home office away from home,” allowing those working remotely to rent a guest room by day at a discounted rate. Each room has complimentary WiFi, a work desk, a mini fridge, a microwave, and a Keurig. Ms Mulhane says, “A lot of times, it’s not always easy to work from home, especially when you have kids. So if you have a project to do or need a private space for a conference call, you can rent one of our rooms.”
Much like the Beechwood Hotel, Ms. Mulhane says 2021 is already looking a little better for the Hilton Garden Inn, as many of the functions and room blocks they had scheduled did in fact postpone into the next year rather than canceling outright. “Fingers crossed everything kind of continues to improve and the governor decides to lift some restrictions when it comes to meetings and venues,” she said.
On the entertainment and amusement side of things, not all businesses were necessarily facing shutdowns or shortcomings; those like FreePlay Arcade in Worcester hadn’t even gotten the chance to open yet when the coronavirus started impacting the Central Mass. region.
Sights set on a late-March debut of their Union Street location, co-owner Anthony Santurri said that didn’t go as planned since it was around the time when everything started to close, and they weren’t able to get final inspections done because in-person visits were halted. Eight months later, the Dave-and-Buster’s-like restaurant and bar arcade has still not opened due to certain state restrictions in place for attractions of this kind.
Mr. Santurri and his business partners already own and operate the original FreePlay location in Providence, RI. Both properties have a restaurant license but Mr. Santurri says it’s the difference between the two states’ rules at the moment which have enabled him to reopen the Providence location while the Worcester one stays closed. In Rhode Island, businesses like FreePlay are essentially being treated as a casino. Masks are still required on the game floor, but patrons are able to take their drink with them as they move around to play and can “sip it discreetly” under their masks, Mr. Santurri explained. Whereas, in Massachusetts, customers must eat and drink only in the dining room, and cannot take a beverage with them to the games. Under this “restrictive measure,” he says FreePlay Worcester would have to remove virtually half their arcade games in order to service everyone sitting in the dining area, which isn’t possible at this point.
Although staying closed has been “a financial burden, monumentally,” as Mr. Santurri says, he and his partners find themselves in a catch-22, where opening their doors would be even more burdensome. “It’s extremely costly, but I will lose money if I open under the present restrictions. Every week I would go in the hole,” he said, adding that, since they’re a new business with no established history, they haven’t been able to get any PPP loans or grants, making things all the more difficult.
For now, they’ve decided to hold off until 2021. They’re eying January or February as a potential opening time frame waiting for the holidays to pass and hopefully for local coronavirus data to move in the right direction. However, the biggest challenge remains the unpredictability and uncertainty of it all — not just the virus.
Mr. Santurri says elected leaders seem to waver frequently on their decided course of action, and since he can’t anticipate what’s coming, there’s no continuity on which to base a business plan. “I have no idea what they’ll do day-to-day or week-to-week, so no business owner in the hospitality industry can plan,” he said. “We could all be on a curfew next week at nine o’clock; we could be closed again — we don’t know.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: The interview and writing of this article took place prior to the imposed curfew.)
The one guarantee? FreePlay will open. Mr. Santurri says he and his partners remain “100%” committed to Worcester. Upon choosing the Heart of the Commonwealth as the spot for their second location years ago, they envisioned the restaurant and bar arcade “would be another piece of the puzzle creating a ‘destination Worcester,’” Mr. Santurri says, and they still believe it will be. He says people who have been eagerly awaiting FreePlay’s new location can rest assured that they will open one day and, “hopefully it will be a place they can have some joy in their lives and, for a few hours, forget about all the unhappiness that’s happened.”
Retail and Service
As FreePlay waits to open, others are getting down to business even in the midst of a pandemic. On Halloween, Bud’s Goods and Provisions opened the first of what’s expected to be a string of stores in Massachusetts on Worcester’s West Boylston Street. After suffering an almost 90-day delay from their initial target date of Aug. 1, the recreational marijuana dispensary is now open and aiming to “raise the bar for cannabis retail.”
Asked about what the experience has been like launching a business at a time when so many others are shuttering, CEO Alex Mazin said they at least had the luxury of building all these COVID-related protocols and changes into their roll-out plan prior to their late-October grand opening, rather than having to adjust on the fly while in operation.
Despite the destruction and terrible things to come as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Mazin says he tries to look at the positives, and when it came to opening Bud’s, there were some silver linings.
First, with millions of Americans unfortunately unemployed, he says there are more and better candidates available in the current talent pool. In his eyes, those who lost jobs in the restaurant, hospitality, or other service-based industries are “perfectly complemented to work in the cannabis industry, specifically at the retail level,” which is good news for people like him who are hiring.
Second, Mr. Mazin says the cannabis industry is no stranger to strict measures, but due to the coronavirus, some of those restrictions were altered in order for business operations to continue safely, like the allowance of curbside pickup — something which was previously not afforded to dispensaries. “At the end of the day, we’re a highly-regulated business, and COVID-19 actually loosened some of those regulations for us to leverage,” he said, pointing out they can now accept phone and online orders as well.
In response, Bud’s Goods has re-thought the retail experience even more. They’ve installed a WiFi connection which extends into the parking lot and allows their tablets to process sales from the customer’s car. They also implemented QR codes at product displays throughout the store to provide consumers the ability to scan to read more about the item or brand.
For the Worcester-raised head of the company, these unique features are all part of elevating the experience as best they can, especially in his hometown. “That’s where the extra pride comes in and that extra level of detail,” said Mr. Mazin. “My goal is not to just build a dispensary, it’s to change what a dispensary should be and set the new standard.”
Bud’s Goods and Provisions isn’t the only business to open up shop in Worcester amid this pandemic chaos. Husband-and-wife team Jim and Debbie Coyle opened a Great Clips location in late-July and say so far, under the circumstances, “things are going about as well as can be expected.”
In accordance with state restrictions and CDC guidelines, the hair salon has a number of COVID-19 safety measures in place; people wait in the parking lot rather than the waiting room, everyone wears masks, stylists wear eyewear and change both their smock and gloves between each customer, every client gets a new cape, hand sanitizer is provided, and absolutely everything — from the floor to the tools — is sanitized.
On top of advertising these diligent safety protocols, Mr. Coyle says he recently signed a contract to put coupons for a haircut on the back of Price Chopper receipts, since two of the grocery chain’s stores are within a couple-mile radius of his salon. “We’re doing everything we can think of to drive people into the doors. But it’s hard because people are scared; they don’t wanna come out,” he said. They’ve also expanded their hours of operation. “I’m trying to make it as convenient for the customers as possible. If they want to go early, they can; if they want to go late, they can. We’re open seven days a week.”
Mr. Coyle, who’s been in the C-suite for more than 20 years, says he understands “cash is king,” and knows he’ll have to spend money to make money as he continues to build his customer base. But right now, he says they’re losing money, and if they have to close their doors, they’ll “probably still lose money on just rent and nothing else. So we’ll ride it out.”
In the interest of the five full-time and three part-time stylists they employ, Mr. Coyle doesn’t want to close but says he’ll always do whatever is the right thing for his staff. He’s hoping business picks up soon and that the promotions they offer — like those coupons and the free haircuts for vets on Veterans Day — will help build up a valued customer base.
Unlike Bud’s Goods and Great Clips, which are both new to the city’s business landscape, Joseph’s Lock and Safe has been in Worcester since 1926 and is still going steady through the pandemic. When Massachusetts began shutting down in March, Joseph’s Lock reduced their store showroom hours, but were still open and offering mobile service since they fell into the essential business category.
Owner Seth Derderian says that as some businesses went remote and others saw increasing in-person traffic, many of their customers required help securing or re-evaluating how their buildings were being opened and closed. With hours changing, companies down-sizing, and employees coming and going, the security services of Joseph’s Lock were in high demand. According to Mr. Derdarian, a lot of their customers from the manufacturing and medical industries were requesting automatic-closing and self-locking doors be installed due to higher volumes of order shipments and the need for more security at employee entrances which were normally wide open.
Those quick-fix jobs were needed immediately at the start of the pandemic, but Mr. Derderian says a lot of their longer-term projects were put on hold. “Jobs we’ve had purchase orders for were given a green light and it was like ‘Hurry, hurry, hurry!’ but then it was like, ‘wait.’”
Overall, Mr. Derderian says Joseph’s Lock and Safe hasn’t been much busier than normal but has been steady, and the market for safes has been hot. “Safe sales are soaring. A lot of people wanted to have accessibility to their valuables and now want to have a little cash in their homes,” he said, noting that banks being closed or only open for limited hours and services left people feeling uncertain and seeking more tangible security with their valuables at their fingertips.
Health Care
It goes without saying those in the health care industry have undoubtedly been busier these past months. Acclaim Home Health Care Inc. is no exception. With an average daily census of 200 patients — many of whom rely on the caregivers’ services for things as basic as getting out of bed in the morning or having a first meal — closing down was not an option. Since the coronavirus is known to be particularly dangerous for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, this made the work of Acclaim’s almost 40 caregivers particularly challenging, as one of their main tasks was to keep the patients healthy and comfortable at home to avoid overwhelming hospitals.
Like many other health care facilities during the pandemic’s spring peak, just acquiring enough personal protective equipment proved to be extremely difficult. On top of that, Acclaim Home Health Care’s President Chizoma Nosike was encountering a staffing issue: a few of her employees had to quit at the onset because either they or their family members had conditions which put them at heightened risk for the virus. Others had to take leaves of absence when schools closed and they didn’t have child care for their children.
In the meantime, hiring new people was a problem in and of itself because of the depleted workforce. “Getting CNAs or trained home health aides from the occupational training schools was not possible because the state shut them down and did not put them in the first phase of reopening,” Ms. Nosike said. “Schools couldn’t graduate their students because they still needed to go to a nursing home to do their clinicals — and the nursing homes had shut their doors to students.”
Because the nursing and care services Acclaim Home Health Care provides are usually under insurance, another hurdle in all of the madness was navigating changes with physician’s offices and proper documentation, and helping patients use telemedicine. In an effort to keep this at-risk population out of the rehab centers and hospitals, Ms. Nosike says the health aide agency staff was becoming the “eyes and ears” of the doctors, offering to be at the patient’s house on the day and time of scheduled calls to help them maneuver their devices and meet insurance requirements for a successful telemedicine visit.
Manufacturing
FLEXcon Company, a manufacturer employing around 500 people at their North American headquarters in Spencer, Mass., has faced some challenges in the era of COVID-19. As a company which produces materials for pressure-sensitive labels on all sorts of food, personal hygiene, medical, and pharmaceutical products, they too, were deemed an essential business and had to jump into immediate action to ensure they could keep running smoothly.
“If you can’t put a label on a product, you have now interrupted that part of the supply chain,” explained Lavon Winkler, president and CEO of FLEXcon North America. “So we’ve got to make sure that we’re working with our suppliers, we’re keeping our folks safe and well, and that we have the processes in place not just so we keep the business moving forward — but so we can manage any potential covid incident in such a way that we mitigate the impact it could have on our people.”
On the business side of things, Mr. Winkler says FLEXcon isn’t where they had hoped to be when 2020 started, with sales now down around 9% overall. Their mix of orders has changed, as certain products are in higher demand than others — like the materials they make which have been used for labels on millions of COVID-19 tests. According to Mr. Winkler, though FLEXcon’s margins are slightly off-kilter and they aren’t as profitable now as they were before, they are still a financially healthy company. Recognizing this fortunate position, despite the pandemic’s disruption to their business operations, FLEXcon was able to manufacture a couple of new products for the benefit of their community.
During the time when health care facilities were running dangerously low on PPE, Mr. Winker says they got calls from local hospitals asking if they make things like face shields, and if not, could they. “So, we pulled together a small team of people into a conference room and 36 hours later, they had a prototype of a face shield,” he said. Shortly thereafter, it was mass produced using materials they already had in house and donated by the tens of thousands to regional hospitals, doctors’ offices, and first responders. Others were eventually sold at a low cost all around the nation.
The same was true of tent hoods. Again, Mr. Winkler says, they got a call asking if they could manufacture these clear tents which a health care worker puts over their head to test if their N95 mask is working properly. The FLEXcon team had a prototype within 24 hours and was able to get those produced for the front line workers as well. “It’s not a significant part of our revenue,” Mr. Winkler said, “Yet it’s a very significant thing we’re doing to help out and at least do what we can to fight this battle of COVID.”
As another sign of their commitment to the community, FLEXcon also created maker kits using cut up pieces of materials, which they donated to the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District as a way for local kids to keep their hands and minds busy while stuck at home.
IT
Almost every aspect of our everyday lives — work, school, and social gatherings — has transitioned to the virtual world, which is why Domitek, a Worcester-based IT support company, was also deemed an essential business.
With many now needing to work from home, Domitek’s biggest challenge was to come up with fast solutions to shift some clients to a fully remote workforce, while still maintaining their data security. This was particularly important as their own staff were providing computer support services remotely, too, they didn’t want to compromise a client’s data. “We needed to make sure we had the proper IT policies in place to ensure we weren’t the ones making our customers vulnerable as well,” said Domitek Founder and CEO Libis Bueno.
In addition to establishing or re-evaluating safe and secure remote work systems, Domitek was seeing high demand around one of their newer applications for voice over internet phone systems, which allows for employees to still take phone calls remotely even when their physical office was closed.
“From an overall standpoint,” said Domitek’s Director of Operations Manny Gonzalez, COVID-19 “hasn’t really changed what we do,” it has just required some tweaks be made to how they do it. “Our focus has always been: How do we help our clients get the most out of their technology and be as efficient and productive as possible? And that doesn’t change for us,” Mr. Gonzalez said.
In respect to how the business community at large has been affected by the pandemic, Mr. Bueno says he realizes the uncertainty of everything is weighing on everyone’s minds. Domitek has been morphing into more of a physical security company over the last few years, and now, with offices being left vacant, it opens up more potential for break-ins. Mr. Bueno says this is another market segment which Domitek is able to answer the call for.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all types of businesses no matter the industry. Some say they’ve made it this far and are poised to make it through to the other side okay. But as the country is seeing another spike in cases, it’s unclear exactly what’s in store for the future of the national and local economy.
By Dominique Goyette-Connerty, Correspondent
