BUSINESS BEAT UNTOLD COVID BIZ STORIES
COVID shutdown: what worked, what didn’t By Katherine Napier Special to Today Magazine
IT IS NO SECRET that small businesses across the nation have been struggling to survive after the COVID shutdown that began in March 2020. One-third of small businesses were forced to close during those first few months, per The Wall Street Journal. Since then, many have been trying to get back to a sense of normalcy. After the recent surge in COVID cases, another lockdown is the last thing business owners want. Businesses all over the Farmington Valley have felt the impact of the pandemic to varying degrees. Here is a brief timeline of the Connecticut government’s statewide shutdown of businesses due to the COVID pandemic, according to multiple media outlets: • March 16, 2020 Gov. Ned Lamont announces that certain businesses — including gyms, restaurants, bars and movie theaters — are ordered to close. • March 18, 2020 Lamont expands the list of business closures — adding indoor shopping malls, amusement parks and bowling alleys. • March 19, 2020 All salons and barbershops are added to the shutdown list and ordered to close. • March 21, 2020 Businesses considered “nonessential” as defined by the state are told to close. • March 23, 2020 The state’s “Stay Safe, Stay Home” policy takes effect. In exclusive interviews with Today Magazine, small business owners and business leaders in the Farmington Valley have commented on two key issues: What they think worked well regarding the state’s COVID business shutdown, and what they wish had been done differently. Morgan Hilyard, executive director of the Simsbury Chamber of Commerce, says that while the initial shutdown was beneficial in ensuring people distanced themselves and took precautions, the length of the lockdown hurt businesses. “The shutdown over months was incredibly detrimental to so many businesses,” Hilyard says. “It is hard to say what should have been done differently, but I do wonder if the stay inside and business shutdown mandate was more strict but for a far shorter amount of time, we may have been able to extinguish the transmission process and reopen faster.” 8
Business reps assess impact, state’s response Such a large-scale government decision will be “polarizing and difficult,” she notes, “and we were dealing with something previously unknown, but the length of the shutdown in my opinion caused the most damage.” Hilyard agrees with the state’s approach of encouraging employees to work from home, saying this has been “a necessary action.” A representative of the Christopher Bryant Co., a septic and sewer company with operations in Simsbury and Bloomfield, says unforeseen consequences occurred when so many people stayed home during the shutdown because demands placed on septic systems drastically increased. “Backups and overflows resulted in panic calls from homeowners who were finding sewage in their yard, basements and toilets,” says Sherri Litchfield. “The last thing people wanted to deal with was a septic problem on top of all the other fears related to the COVID pandemic.” Litchfield attributes the increased sewer and water usage to more frequent hand washing, cleaning and toilet flushing while people were home almost 24/7. Further, with the pandemic-related shortage of toilet paper, the so-called “flushable wipes” many people resorted to caused major issues for owners with septic systems. Regarding the way the state handled the shutdown, Litchfield says, “I am not sure that anything could have made a difference with this pandemic — I only wish that as a nation we had been more
SEPTEMBER 2021 – www.TodayPublishing.net – TODAY MAGAZINE
informed and better prepared for a pandemic such as this.” Septic and sewer companies are on Connecticut’s extensive list of essential businesses. Anderson Turf Irrigation of Avon is also considered an essential business, so the company was fortunate to not have to close when the COVID shutdown occurred. “Because of all the individuals who stayed home, they realized that they weren’t going on vacation, so they improved everything at home,” says owner Curtis Anderson. “The end result was that it increased gross sales dramatically.” Anderson hopes there won’t be another shutdown, but says it depends on how the COVID variants affect the state. The insurance industry is also considered an essential business, yet Christensen Insurance of Simsbury shut its door in the early stages of the pandemic and employees worked from home. “The pandemic was a catalyst for change,” says owner Noris Christensen. “By June we moved to a larger office space providing better options to be in the office with social distancing. We increased use of online tools to minimize the number of inoffice meetings. I feel blessed sales remain strong.” In terms of what worked well regarding the state’s COVID policy, he says: “Many people in Connecticut got the message that we are all in this together — with so many people following safety guidelines, lives were saved.”