Downtown business owners try to keep smiling amid pandemic - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2020

Whiskey Bar Kitchen associates, from left, Riley Morrison,
Lindsay Minnick and Genesia Brown wait outside for the lunch
crowd to arrive at the restaurant on Broad Street in mid-July.
The eatery and bar closed several days later for an indefinite
time period after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
“The whole thought process was these are
the faces of downtown, these are people you
know, these are your neighbors,” Woodard said.
“When you go to T.J. Maxx, you can’t put a face
on that.”
It is unclear how much revenue downtown
merchants have lost. Based on Woodard’s
survey of businesses that remain open, receipts
are down by more than half.
The State of Georgia’s June net tax collections
– which include more than just sales
tax – were $1.94 billion, or $187 million lower
than June 2019’s collections of $2.12 billion.
That’s an -8.8% decrease in revenue. June’s
jobless rate, the latest date for which statistics
are available, was 7.2% compared to June
2019’s 4.4%.
The DDA has changed from a business-recruitment
organization to a
business-retention organization in a matter of
days.
“It’s really been a strategic pivot,” DDA
Chairman Jack Evans said. “We’ve had to go
from people who are looking for a business
to people who can hold onto their business.
Nobody knows what’s in store for the fall.”
Indeed, the worst part is uncertainty of the
future. How long will the pandemic last? When
will there be an antidote? Will government
restrictions – similar to those issued early in the
pandemic’s early weeks – return to states and
municipalities? Will COVID-19 permanently
alter consumer shopping and dining patterns?