These past few months have been rough on business. According to CNBC News as of August 31, there has been a 23% increase in business closed, totaling 165,000.  Over 60% of businesses that were temporarily closed now will remain permanently closed.   Businesses are required to reduce capacity and follow the recommended guidelines,  all while needing to produce enough money to remain profitable.  

San Joaquin Foot and Ankle located in Manteca stated they could only take critical patients for 8 weeks at the beginning of COVID, losing almost 40% of their customers. Their manager Anupa Reddy said, “All of a sudden we were allowed to see non-critical patients and the schedule became overloaded.” After those 8 weeks, their customers increased by 120%. 

Due to COVID 19, our hometown restaurant Brothers, couldn’t even open their restaurant for a few months. The manager said, “Because of these safety precautions it slows down business and costs more money to go through a normal day’s pay and for the added on expenses.” 

The pediatric and orthodontic office, My Kid’s Dentist in Manteca, said they are following the CDC guidelines by limiting the number of patients in the office, temperature checks on both patients and staff, and using personal protective equipment for staff members.  In an interview with Cammy Harvey the office manager and RDA she said ”In the beginning, orthodontics was deemed nonessential forcing the orthodontic department to close for close to 90 days. We could only see emergencies. Once we could open we need to have a 25% reduction in patients on the schedule…  Before COVID- 19 a box of 50 masks would be $5 and is now $25.  Disposable gowns that come in a 10 pack went from $5  to $75. Our expenses have more than doubled. ”  

Some businesses are benefiting from Covid-19.  It is no surprise that grocery delivery services are doing extremely well. Netflix added almost 16 million subscribers in the first quarter. Video games, companies that manufacture computers, laptop computers, gaming computers have also seen increased profit margins.

 Covid-19 has impacted business positively and negatively.  As consumers, we need to remember to support our local businesses and understand the struggles they are having to deal with. Guidelines frequently change forcing businesses to keep up with them. We need to keep them in mind.