The pandemic has been a real struggle for some businesses that are still waiting to reopen.

On Tuesday afternoon, four Northeast Pennsylvania business owners and directors brought their concerns to the state Senate Majority Policy Committee during a workshop that was held to discuss ways to rebuild the economy following the shutdown.

Savas Logothetides, owner of the Wheel Restaurant in Pottsville and the soon-to-open restaurant in Tamaqua, said he’s concerned that customers won’t come back when they go green. Also serving as executive director of the Pottsville Area Development Corp., he cited statistics by the National Restaurant Association, that 33% of people polled said they would eat at a restaurant immediately after it opened. However, 33% said they would wait a few weeks to make sure it was safe before going back. And the statistic that really worries him is that 33% said they won’t go back until there is a vaccine.

“Who’s to say everyone will get a vaccine?” he said.

A business insider predicts that 85% of independently owned restaurants will not be in business by the end of the pandemic, he said.

“You’re operating at a loss at 50% capacity, even at 75%,” he said.

Nemeth said another challenge for restaurants is getting all of the soap, hand sanitizer and paper products they need to meet state and federal guidelines, while all of the other restaurants are buying the same things. This means many items are on backorder, he said.

“It’s going to be challenging, all of us, to get what we need in order to protect our guests, protect our employees,” Nemeth said.

Loren Collura, manager of Hope and Coffee in Tamaqua, runs a nonprofit coffee shop that provides employment to people battling addictions. They don’t receive any government funding, so covering the cost of the paper products and other supplies like the restaurants on a shoestring budget is tough.

“All of those things are very expensive,” she said. “It has been a struggle.”

Being closed for two months not only hurt them financially, but also hurt the people they support.

“In addition to the economic struggle, the mental health of our employees and our customers, which are our number one concern as a business as a cafe, has really declined,” she said. “The biggest help in mental health and recovery from addiction is social connection.”

Collura said what she needs from lawmakers and the state government is some clarity.

Waivers

Jim Nemeth, director of human resources at Autoneum North America Inc. in Bloomsburg, said it was frustrating battling the process to try to gain exemption from the business shutdown knowing the business was vital to the automotive industry, holding up customers, and purchasing products from competitors to fill their orders while they had to sit idle.

“Well, that cost us approximately $272,000 to $300,000 that we had to spend as a result of that. We’ve been able to capture that business back, thank God. We had some business that was going to one other customer that has been permanently moved out of our business here, and that’s 14 jobs,” he said. “It’s really illogical that we weren’t allowed to operate when you look at some of the other companies in Columbia County that were.”

Nemeth said he saw several businesses on the exemption list, such as a hot tub company.

“Where’s the fairness, I guess, or the consistency,” he asked.

Being a global company based in Switzerland, Nemeth said his company was watching the pandemic develop and took steps to protect their employees. They were ready for it and would have been able to work safely through it, but they didn’t get the chance.

“We went through this whole waiver process, which was very frustrating,” he said. “You almost felt like you got the runaround.”

Nemeth said they talked to the Department of Community and Economic Development who told them to talk to the state Secretary of Health, and the Secretary of Health sent them back to DCED.

Nemeth said the company has been devastated by several floods in recent years. The pandemic didn’t help matters.

“We’re just hopeful and optimistic that we can overcome this,” he said.

Debra Cody, owner of Studio 16 Salon in Pottsville, said she has been closed for three months and is still closed. She is $16,000 in debt from the closure. She knows people held out for many weeks, but most have gone out to the store and bought their own hair coloring kits and buzz cut their husbands’ hair.

“Now, they’re gone,” she said.

In desperation, she knows some stylists have “gone underground” and are providing haircuts secretly. She just hopes her clients will come back when she does open.

“We’re scratching our way out,” she said.