Businesses adjust to reopening

Businesses like gyms, hair salons, and restaurants are reopening their ellipticals, salon chairs, and dining rooms throughout the county. The question may arise in some minds, “How is this going?”

The Houston Home Journal spoke with some businesses to answer that very question.

Brad Squires, president of the middle Georgia native company, Destiny Fitness, said that the locations have employed precautions such as temperature checks with thermal thermometers, every other machine being marked “out of order” to ensure social distancing while working out, the cancellation of group classes, as well as amped up cleaning efforts, in which, he shared the company takes pride. Squires also noted that a challenge faced during reopening was finding gym wipes, which would arrive at the gyms every week in bulk. Now, Squires said, these essentials are hard to find, but that the company has overcome this hurdle by buying dry wipes and the separate disinfectant solution, and pouring it into the wipes so that these necessities are available to patrons.

“When you come into our gym, look to the left and look to the right. You will see disinfectant wipes on every corner of the gym, and you will see hand sanitizer throughout…that makes you feel better and makes you more comfortable when you do come in, because we do this for the comfort in knowing that you can disinfect it as well,” Squires said, explaining that for him, it’s all about the safety and confidence of the members.

Squires also noted that the gym has lessened its hours from 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and has also seen an attendance of about 30% occupancy.

“A lot of people are just choosing to dip their toe in the water, if you will,” Squires said, informing that he believed the month of June would be better. Destiny Fitness, Squires said, has also offered a 90-day freeze on memberships to allow patrons to feel more comfortable when they come back to workout.

Squires said that people should come back in when they feel comfortable, and also invited members to come by to look around without working out as well, citing that it may allow people to witness precautions being taken and boost that comfort level and allow people to feel good about coming back and having a workout.

Tiffany Baker, owner of Tre Bella Salon, also in Perry, shared that reopening regulations seemed like a lot at first, but now she believes the salon is settling in. She does not have any major complaints. Baker said the salon is not back to full capacity yet, citing the inability to double book, which would allow a stylist to see multiple clients at a time in situations where there is down time in a client’s process. Baker said, due to this, she has gone from seeing eight to 10 clients in one day, to four to five, which takes away a little over half of the salon’s income. Baker said there is a willingness of clients to be seen, and she believed the stylists of the establishment are all booked through July.

Baker also informed that some products needed for the salon’s function, such as Lysol and Clorox wipes are still hard to find, sharing that she had just received supplies last week that had been ordered before the salon’s reopening; a time lapse, Baker noted, of six weeks.

A concern of the salon, Baker also noted, was the threat of another wave being possible, resulting in another closure. Baker said that this wave has prepared the business as far as what is needed for the salon, yet financially, employees are attempting to put money aside, but that is hard, Baker shared, when working paycheck to paycheck. Baker said that the salon has received unemployment, but that the money is being set aside in fear that it may be taken away.

Baker explained the situation has been a nervous one because everything is constantly changing and she doesn’t know what to expect, citing things such as possible impacts for school reopening. The plans of the school system, Baker explained, would have an impact on how the business runs, as they will need to make sure that the children of employees are taken care of in the case of possible online learning, or staggered schedules, which could change the hours of operation. Baker said that they are blessed to be able to change these hours and that it would result in working later shifts.

“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there. We’re going to try to do the best we can, so we’re all trying to stay real positive,” Baker said.

Kyla McDowell, General Manager of Johnny’s Pizza, told the Houston Home Journal that during the time the restaurant’s dining room was closed, pick-up orders, third party delivery services, and curbside pick-up was employed, with the corporate office even adding a line to the website that allowed customers to list the type of car that they were driving. McDowell shared, after the dining room reopened, there was still an abundance of online orders, which McDowell said has attributed to a 10% online sales increase. McDowell also informed that the online numbers have been so high, that the last two Fridays, the wait times have been changed to compensate for the volume.

The eatery is staying busy according to McDowell, and people are calling to confirm that the establishment is open to patrons to eat in. McDowell said customers have been understanding about the seating arrangements, noting that every other table is marked with a blue “X” indicating that it should not be used to minimize the amount of people in the dining room at one time. McDowell said that she has seen that people are ready to come back in, and that she has also been seeing many patrons.

During the closing, McDowell explained that staff had typically been limited to managers and cooks during working hours, though it was offered to other employees to come in. McDowell said that the owner of the store also applied for unemployment for staff to have some type of income while not working and that employees were promised that they would keep their jobs. McDowell happily reported that no jobs were lost, and that the franchise was back to full staff.

McDowell said employees have been very willing to adhere to regulations such as sanitizing, masks, gloves and cleaning, and they have all been team players.

McDowell said that she hopes to continue to see people frequent the establishment, and thanked customers for the support and understanding. McDowell said that all the thanks and appreciation was due to patrons, and that they could not do what they do without them.

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