By:  Hellen Zaboulani

As January’s frigid temperatures and storms kick in, coupled with Omicron, New York’s small businesses are back to COVID-19 pandemic practices.

As reported by Crain’s NY, small businesses are once again using pandemic-era tricks to stay afloat.  “Business is just really very slow—the slowest I’ve seen it in the seven years we’ve been open,” said Tara Oxley, the owner of Eugene & Co., a restaurant in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant.  Restaurants are back to offering delivery and takeout specials.  Gyms and other classes are back to offering zoom sessions.  Businesses across the board are finding way to reduce costs again, and are looking for another government grant application.

In a survey taken in early January by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, about 75 percent of companies responded to say their holiday sales were lower than in previous years, leaving them more vulnerable to the infamously slow month of January.  The survey received responses from restaurants, retailers and gyms. The survey indicated that among respondents about 60% had employees who called out sick, and 1 of 5 had to temporarily close shop during the holidays. Recognizing the hardship, recently, city, state and local business groups have started offering support and funds to aid business owners in holding out till the spring.

“Just when many of our small businesses were hoping to make up some ground for losses incurred throughout the pandemic,” said Randy Peers, president and CEO of the Brooklyn chamber, “they now face another uncertain winter as we head into 2022.”  The MTA’s subways and LIRR has fared similar to the small businesses.  As per Crain’s, in November and December things were starting to brighten, with ridership returning to about 55% of its pre-2020 level, and hitting 75% on weekends. Since January, however, ridership is back down to about 40%.  “The emotional roller coaster has been one of the hardest parts of the pandemic,” said Jessica Lappin, president of the Downtown Alliance, who noted how busy the street were again in October but have since died back down.

Small businesses have been doing their best to adapt and cope in ways they learned during the 2020 pandemic.  Staffs have been cut, as patrons choose not to show up for any number of reasons including the cold weather, social distancing concerns, vaccine mandates for indoor venues, as well as their own reduced incomes and spending capacity.

Last week, Gov. Hochul announced some good news, saying the wave of Covid-19 cases seems to be losing steam.  Hopefully, the spring will come sooner than we expect and New York’s resilience will shine again.