GREATER SPRINGFIELD – On April 28, Governor Charlie Baker announced on a two-week extension to the stay at home order and an emergency order that shuttered non-essential businesses and required residents to only leave their home for activities such as grocery shopping and picking up prescriptions.

Baker began the conference by stating that even though it “may seem like months ago” that the order was put in place, “it was only on March 23, which was 35 days ago, that we issued an emergency order requiring the closure of all non-essential businesses due to COVID-19.”

The same day that the emergency order was issued, Baker also directed the Department of Public Health to issue a stay at home order. These orders, he said during the April 28 press conference, were vital to slowing the spread of the virus. “These two decisions were absolutely necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19,” he said.

 Baker said not doing anything, however, was simply not an option the Commonwealth was willing to pursue. “Not acting, however, was not an option. Without any effective treatments or vaccines and only a few weapons that we had to fight this virus, those decisions were made to save lives,” he said.

He added that data has shown that the policies have had a drastic impact on slowing the virus from spreading rapidly, making him decide to extend the closure of non-essential businesses by two weeks until May 18. “The mobility data suggests that our state’s effort to close brick and mortar businesses and our calls for social distancing played a significant role in stopping and slowing the spread of the virus,” he said.

These policies and their success thus far in slowing the spread are the main reason he also chose to extend the ban on gatherings of 10 people or more and the stay at home order until May 18. “Medical and infectious disease experts believe that the public’s compliance of our closures of non-essential businesses, our ban on large gatherings and our stay at home advisory has slowed the spread and helped the hospitals keep up,” Baker said. “Based on these facts on the ground, these mechanisms all need to remain in place so we can soon do better than just keep up and actually start to get ahead.”

Baker expressed his sympathy to residents struggling with staying home and businesses having a difficult time remaining open. “I know pushing these dates back a couple of weeks is probably not what many people want to hear,” he said. “And believe me, I’m just as frustrated as everybody else that I can’t visit my father or give many of the small businesses that I talk to all the time that are struggling to survive, the okay to open up now.”

While Baker added that he believed the Commonwealth was “moving in the right direction with respect to the virus,” the state is “not where we need to be” in order to begin opening once again. “We all look forward to stepping in front of this podium to tell you that we’re starting to open for business,” he said in some of his final remarks.

The closures, as stated by Baker, have impacted small businesses’ across the commonwealth. The Reminder Publishing staff reached out to some of those local businesses to see how they were managing their business during difficult times and how the extended closures might impact the future of their business.

Chicopee

When the closure of non-essential businesses was first announced by Baker, Billy Stetson, owner of the Collegian Court and the Rumbleseat Bar and Grill in Chicopee, closed the doors to his restaurants. However, he opened his doors again after being approved for the Paycheck Protection Program – an eight-week loan put forward by the Small Business Association to encourage and provide incentive for business owners to keep employees on payroll.

However, he said the loan “didn’t work out how I anticipated it.” Stetson said, “The problem for me is that the clock starts ticking as soon as it hits your account.” This meant, instead of using the funds how he wanted, which was to bring his staff back a week before reopening. Instead, he brought some of his staff back early and reopened for business.
 

This, he said, has prevented him from making money. “I’m not really making any more money. Right now it’s about staying active than about making money,” he said.

Stetson said while he doesn’t want anyone getting sick, he was disappointed to hear Baker was extending the closure of non-essential businesses. “I was really disappointed the governor didn’t open up partially, not even necessarily restaurants, just anything,” he said. “It’s like they keep moving the goal, it’s hard.”

Additionally, Stetson expressed concerns about his employees and their desire to return to work. He said already some of his employees had declined to come back to work, as they were making more money on unemployment. He said fortunately there’s “not a lot of turnover” with staff and his “key people came back.”

In the meantime, he said that “people are making donations,” and “the community has been awesome.” Stetson said both the Rumbleseat and the Collegian Court are open for business and serving customers at this time.

“At the Rumbleseat, we’re doing our full menu and at the Collegian Court, I’m doing a partial menu and a lot of family dinners, dinners for four,” he said.

East Longmeadow

Maureen Basile, who owns Maureen’s Sweet Shoppe at 6 Center Sq., said she wasn’t surprised by the extension. “I didn’t expect anything to change until June 1,” she said.

Basile said since the initial closures on March 23, she has struggled to bring in sales. “We’re doing horrible, we’re coming up with different ideas and stuff like that, [but] after Easter sales shut down,” she explained.

In addition to a decrease in sales, Basile said that she was having a difficult time accessing loans and grants that had been announced by both the federal and state government. “We’re having an impossible time accessing government money. They’ve changed all the terms of the EIDL loans and grants,” she said.

However, despite difficult circumstances Basile said they would continue to fill online orders and offer curbside pickup. “We’re just going to chug along,” she said.

Basile added that she felt lucky to be able to have the option to continue sales in some way because she knew of stores that were forced to close completely.

“At least we have the ability to make sales, we’re lucky,” she said. “It’s hard for the businesses.”

Hampden/Wilbraham

The extended closure won’t make much of a difference to Scott Stawas, owner of Crazy Jake’s in Wilbraham.

 “We’re surviving, so another two weeks won’t kill us,” he said.

Adam Field, owner of Fieldcrest Brewing, said, “Certainly for us, being closed is not good, but I understand it.” He said that the brewery is finding revenue sources despite patrons not being allowed inside.

“Growler business has picked up,” and they have, “been forced by necessity to get into the canning business, so that will be another avenue to pursue,” Field said.

While many restaurants and breweries can continue to generate sales on take-out items for the extra two weeks, gyms have to remain closed.

Movement Terrain OCR Fitness owner Brain Miller said that his business hasn’t completely gone under because he was able to secure a disaster loan.

“Fortunately, I’ve been able to collect unemployment,” Miller said, but his part-time, gig-economy employees have not. He will be able to start paying them again since he qualified for a Paycheck Protection Program loan through the federal coronavirus relief bill. Miller said that he received the news on the same day that Baker announced the closure extension.

If the date to reopen the state is pushed back again, Miller said, the assistance his business has received may not be enough.

“The longer this goes, continuing to make full lease payments – the two weeks won’t kill us, but two months – that might be the end of us,” Miller speculated.

Holyoke

Geno Santaniello, who owns Capri Pizza in Holyoke, said not a lot has changed at his restaurant since the governor’s initial closure of non-essential businesses.

“It doesn’t really affect us, we were mostly doing takeout and delivery business anyway,” he said.

The most significant change, he said, has been that the lunch hour is slower due to the number of businesses and factories in the area that shut their doors due to the pandemic. “Our lunch hours were really slowed down,” he said.

The change prompted Santaniello to change his hours of operation slightly. “We open at 2 p.m. until 8 p.m., it’s working better than being here earlier,” he said.

He said sometimes it can take “a little longer to get the order in and out,” but overall “business has been pretty well.”

Another change the business made was not allowing anyone inside the building and taking extra precautions when preparing food.     “We’re not allowing anyone in the building, just to stay as safe as possible,” Santaniello said. “We’re just being more cautious on preparing the food, staying sanitary more than usual.”

While the restaurant has always offered delivery, Santaniello said they have added an additional delivery driver to keep up with demand and are providing curbside pickup.

Santaniello is remaining optimistic about the future of his business, and said he doesn’t believe that anything will change even if the closure of non-essential businesses is extended further. “We should be able to maintain, and we’re ready for anything that’s tossed at us,” he said.

Huntington

Michael Desmarais, owner of Comfort Kitchen and Bar on 4 Main Street in Huntington is offering meals for takeout Wednesdays through Sundays from 4 to 7 p.m.  He said it’s going “okay,” but his business is at only 25 percent of what they would normally be doing.

“This will be our third year in September.  Winter was fairly good to us, as far as the weather.  We were just hitting our stride, then this happened,” Desmarais said.

Desmarais said he is now the only one in the front of the house to take orders and package food, and he has three employees in the kitchen, who are now part-time. He had to furlough other employees, who he said “are chomping at the bit to get back.”  He added that they have been able to access unemployment, and he himself has applied for the second round of the Payroll Protection Program.

One of the ways that Desmarais has been able to boost his takeout business is by offering specials, which he did at Easter. He will also be offering a Mother’s Day breakfast/brunch advance pick up menu by reservation at 207-3011.         “We want to give people options that don’t want to cook on Mother’s Day,” he said.

“I definitely want to thank my customers who have been supporting us through all this, and come in with kind words. It’s comforting to know that they’re behind us,” he added.

At the other side of the spectrum, Moltenbrey’s Market at 44 Worthington Road in Huntington is busier than they have ever been. Hilltowners were lining up to shop at the local full-service market, which also offers cooked specials, and avoid trips out of town.  At the beginning of April, the owner made the decision to only take orders over the phone for curbside pickup, due to an inability to ensure safe social distancing in the store for customers and staff.

“It’s been crazy. We’re a lot busier than normal, and have way more people working now,” said Moltebrey’s owner Darryl Fisk.  He said normally the store has between two to five employees, and now they have between five and eight, working 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with “zero” breaks.  The market is open Mondays through Saturdays.

“Our backs are shot by the end of the day.  I’m lucky I’ve got the help I’ve got,” Fisk said.

Fisk said he doesn’t foresee opening the store up for a couple of weeks.  He said as an essential business, he didn’t have to close the doors, but did it for the sake of the employees. “The only exposure we have is ourselves.  This is our best bet. If a couple got sick, we’re shut down.”

“It’s been good. The people have been good,” Fisk said.  He doesn’t know if he will end up making more money though. “It’s kind of an even swap. A lot more business, and a lot more labor.  Hopefully, it works out somewhat,” he said.

Longmeadow

Ralph Santaniello, owner of Posto as well as The Federal in Agawam and Vinted Wine Bar in West Hartford, CT, said he did not find the announcement unexpected, but that does not make the situation less challenging.

“We saw the writing on the wall. We pretty much knew with Connecticut announcing it would not open until May 20 that this was probably what was going to happen,” he said. “Once Massachusets decided to join the coalition of Northeast states, I figured May 4 wasn’t going to happen.”

Posto recently reopened for takeout and limited delivery service to Longmeadow and East Longmeadow after taking a hiatus after the Easter holiday due to the anticipated surge in cases in Massachusetts. The Federal and Vinted have also reopened. Santaniello said he has been “pleasantly surprised” by the increase in takeout business, but that makes up only about 20 percent of the company’s normal revenue.

“The only word I can really think of to describe this is devastating,” he said. “This has been devastating to the restaurant industry and I’m really not sure how it is going to recover.”

When asked if a May 18 deadline presented a realistic timetable for potentially reopening, Santaniello said there was no way to be sure.

“Everything is changing daily. Is May 18 going to happen or is this going to be extended again? It really comes down to what is happening about 10 days out before we can have any confidence,” he said, adding the situation would impact everything from menu development to scheduling.

If restaurants are given the green light to open, Santaniello said it may be very difficult for establishments to come by essential ingredients and dry goods. Distributors are not currently stocking many items and many will be in high demand, he said, also pointing out the recent shutdown of several meat plants due to COVID-19.

“Could you imagine if every restaurant opened on May 18? I honestly don’t even know what that would look like,” he said. “I could prepare a menu and then find out that I can’t get T-bone steaks for another two weeks.”

Michael Szwed, owner of Michael Szwed Jewelers, said he anticipates non-essential businesses like his could remain closed “for a lot longer than a lot of people expect.”

“I am not a doctor; I am a jeweler. But I think this has the potential to go into June. I prepped my staff for that and told them to enjoy the time with their families,” he said.

While not able to open the showroom and conduct sales in the usual manner, Szwed and the store manager Jennifer Blais have been able to take orders over the phone and have used tools such as Facetime to consult with clients. Additionally, they have begun recording educational videos that are posted on the company’s website. Most recently, Szwed began a series on the “four C’s of diamonds” – cut, color, clarity and carat weight – and their importance.

“Especially in times like these, it’s important to keep your face out there and let people know you are ready and able to help,” Szwed said.

Springfield

Blake Bryan, general manager of Paddy’s Irish Pub in Springfield, said he was not surprised by the extension of non-essential business closures.

“When this all first happened, in my mind I thought it wouldn’t be until mid-June or July when we’d eventually see some release of restrictions or new guidelines,” he said. “Being tuned into the news and talking with friends and family who work at places like Baystate [Medical Center], you get the concept that this may be a lot longer than everyone anticipates. As for May 18, I don’t even know if that is at all viable.”

Bryan said he and his employees “braced for impact” in the wake of the initial closures and have maintained their own support system, assisting each other in navigating unemployment insurance and communicating regularly on a business and personal level through texts and social media.

He added in speaking with Tim Dineen, the owner of Paddy’s, as well as his assistant manager and other members of the bar and restaurant industry, the uncertainty of the future has created a sense of fear.

“The fear is not knowing what’s going to happen on any level. Is what is happening now going to affect people’s patterns and habits. We all form them and we’re forming new habits right now. Are we going to see a wave of people coming into bars and restaurants or are we going to see people saying, ‘You know, I’m OK sitting right here at home?’” he said. “We also have no idea how it’s going to look in terms of whether there will be heavy restrictions, how limits on crowd capacity will be affected.”

While acknowledging safety is paramount and restrictions should stay in place as long as possible to ensure public health, Bryan said there is a legitimate worry about the domino effect that could occur if the state’s situation doesn’t improve this summer.

“All of a sudden, you could see our larger businesses holding back into the fall. Colleges may choose to start their fall semesters online. Large corporations like MassMutual could conceivably have a good portion of their workforce continue to work from home. Springfield schools could even push back a start date,” he said. “That creates a perfect storm of economic failure in our little neck of the woods.”

Still, Bryan said he has been heartened by the level of support and feedback he has received from the public, noting he has received numerous messages of encouragement and well wishes for him and his family as well as his staff.

“It’s a really humbling thing for a little bar Springfield, Massachusetts,” he said.

Paddy’s was even able to help celebrate a birthday from afar. Rachael Holser’s family collaborated with Blake to throw her a 21st birthday party after her mother reached out and explained her daughter had wanted her first drink to be at the bar.

“Having your first drink at Paddy’s is kind of a right of passage because of how vigilant we are about carding people,” Blake explained. “So when this mother reached out to me, I was able to put together some merchandise I had at home and send it to them to create their own Paddy’s.”

Bryan posted photos from the family’s celebration on the bar’s social media and said it has received “great feedback.”

“People I haven’t heard from in years have started reaching out,” he said. “In these dark and questionable times, it was great to be able to bring a little light.”

Southwick

Sergio Bonavita, owner and brewmaster at Westfield River Brewing Company, said it was difficult to plan for the future without knowing any details on how or when businesses like his could reopen.

“Do you dive back in with a full head of steam and then they tell you you’ve got to shut down again in November or December?” he said. “All those things are on the table. It’s challenging. That’s all I can say about it.”

He added he was hopeful the space they had would be sufficient to meet the parameters for eventual reopening.

“Here, we have a really big space, so we’re just hoping that the outdoor restrictions are loosened and we can use our farm,” he said. “We have 73 acres. We throw all the festivals and stuff and we’re just hoping we can start doing that again. We can social distance pretty easily, so that’s what our plan is. After that, I have no idea.”

Rick Grimaldi with the Summer House said that business has been much slower than usual for this time of year. “We’re looking at it not that we’re behind, but that it’s an extension of winter. We’re doing the level of business that we’ve been doing in January and February, which is very low,” he said.

One of the ways the Summer House has changed its structure is by opening its outside takeout windows earlier than normal since many guests are uncomfortable about going inside to use the window there. Grimaldi also added that they are encouraging people to pay over the phone so there is no in person transaction.

Grimaldi said that the Summer House was expecting another extended closure before Gov. Baker’s announcement, but they are looking at what other states are doing as they prepare to reopen eventually.         “We would not be returning to normal, it would be a new normal and we figure social distancing will have to be part of our plans, but we’re already starting to formulate an opinion about how we’re going to keep everyone safe and happy,” he said.

Before the closure began, Grimaldi said the Summer House was planning a big event to celebrate its 40th anniversary, but now that has to be put on hold.

He joked, “We were planning some celebratory event to mark it. Well we’ll never forget our 40th anniversary here, but I don’t think it’s going to be quite what I intended to have.”

While many businesses closed during this time, Grimaldi said he was thankful that they can keep their restaurant going, even if they are just offering take out. He said, “We’re very fortunate we were lucky to stay open. Our goal was really to just keep the staff, we can’t say things are good but it’s a lot better than many other people.

Westfield

Peter Kantos, one of The Tavern’s owners, said the transition to take out only has been a difficult one, but the staff has made it easier. “We’re lucky enough to have a very capable and versatile staff during this time,” he said.

With the business closure extended until May 18 currently, Kantos said he was happy the announcement was made a week before businesses were set to reopen. He said, “We were lucky to get a week of leeway this time. We don’t want to have to begin the process of opening up before being told the day before that the closure would be extended because we have to spend a lot of time and money getting ready.”

He added that if the closures need to be extended again he hopes the Tavern has plenty of advance notice.

Despite the difficult time local businesses are going through, Kantos said the Tavern is doing its best to keep a positive attitude. “We’re doing our best at attempting to stay positive and keep our heads up during this difficult time,” he said.