The deserted streets in the QC attest to the severe impact of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses. In fact, most have closed down, leaving essential and local businesses fighting to stay open.
Beth Aronson, the owner of QC’s Coffee Hound and Cheesy Cow businesses, made the difficult decision to keep Coffee Hound open for the time being. “We wanted to stay open for our loyal customers and so our employees could have a paycheck,” Aronson said.
And Coffee Hound is one of the many local businesses that are taking the pandemic very seriously to ensure the safety of their customers.
Junior Raegan Stein is a barista at Coffee Hound, and she decided to continue to work during quarantine as she trusts Coffee Hound’s safety policies. “I have been using so much hand sanitizer and washing my hands to the point where when I go home my hands are about to bleed,” Stein said. Coffee Hound has taken many precautions, such as closing their lobby, requiring their staff to wash their hands, and sanitizing constantly.
Similarly to Coffee Hound, another local coffee shop is taking serious precautions. Senior Claire Bebow is a barista at Atomic, and is also continuing to work during quarantine. Atomic is doing simple things like having “a designated cash handler, or if you touch money, using hand sanitizer. We are also using wrapped straws and allowed to take time off if needed,” Bebow said.
However, quarantine orders have not held back customers from supporting local businesses. “We are definitely more busy during this time. For three days we had to use replacement energy drinks because of delayed shipments,” Bebow said. It seems as though some local businesses are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of customers.
Stein could not agree with Bebow more, saying, “Quarantine honestly has helped our business if anything. We now have a line of cars in our drive-thru almost all day, and customers coming through until close. We just got to the point in sales where we can have two people working at a time to make the line move faster and be more efficient.” Businesses are working around the clock to support and bring a little positivity to the community.
With the increased number of customers comes an overwhelming amount of support from the community. “The owners have made it known to all employees that without the community’s help, we wouldn’t be able to keep our doors open for much longer. Customers have made it so I actually want to work, which is odd, because I normally dread working a seven hour shift” Stein said.
Stein, Bebow, and many other workers like them are grateful for the community’s overwhelming generosity and understanding during a trying time. Their hope is to keep everyone happy and safe while still being able to sip on their favorite drink.
