Customers returned to some Georgia businesses Friday as the state’s death toll from the novel coronavirus neared 900. Governor Brian Kemp, who was one of the last state officials to issue a shelter in place order to curb the spread of the virus, became one of the first to roll back such restrictions, signing an executive order on Monday allowing an assortment of high-touch businesses to resume operations.
Kemp said reopening more of the state’s economy would minimize the “terrible impact of Covid-19 on public health and the pocketbook.”
Some business owners who could benefit from the order are saying no thanks. They’re concerned that reopening could endanger their health, as well as the health of their employees and customers. Their fears are echoed by public health officials, White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, among others, who have criticized Kemp’s order as premature and potentially dangerous.
The order could jeopardize some businesses’ finances, as the state-mandated closure of non-essential businesses had helped them obtain temporary relief from landlords, lenders, insurers, or government aid programs.
“It’s a nightmare,” says Ben Horgan, co-owner of the Comet Pub and Lanes, a bowling alley and brewery in Decatur, Georgia. Horgan closed the business on March 16, weeks before government orders, out of concern for the safety of staff and customers; the closure affected roughly 100 employees. “We haven’t gotten any guidelines on how to [safely] reopen,” Horgan says. “At this point, it’s hard to know if our elected officials even care about when it’s going to be safe or if they’re just [focused] on reopening the economy, whatever that means.”
Under Kemp’s executive order, tattoo studios, hair salons, massage parlors, and gyms were permitted to open beginning Friday, so long as they follow state social-distancing guidelines and restrictions. Bowling alleys, theaters, social clubs, and dine-in restaurants are permitted to resume operations Monday; nightclubs, bars, and performance venues must stay closed.
Horgan says Comet Pub and Lanes will stay closed. “We just don’t feel safe enough to be able to open,” he says. “We have to make a responsible decision for our community and staff.”
“It’s a complete failure of leadership,” says Ryan Wilson, the CEO and cofounder of The Gathering Spot, a members-only networking space and private social club in Atlanta. The Gathering Spot closed its physical space in March, and has since been operating virtually only.
Wilson says he has been virtually meeting with and advising many of the club’s members. The discussions are frustrating, says Wilson, as many small business owners in Georgia face a tough choice: risk their own health and that of staff in hopes of bringing in some sorely needed cash, or plunge deeper into financial ruin. “It’s hard for me to tell a business owner that they should not open their doors when the thing that they’re going to say back to you is, ‘If I don’t figure out a way to start some sort of forward progress here, I run the risk of not having the business be there at all,’“ says Wilson.
About half of The Gathering Spot members that were eligible to reopen Friday did so, while half will stay closed for safety reasons, he says. As more businesses reopen, Wilson says it will get more difficult for those that stay closed due to health concerns. He says he’s spoken to restaurant owners who had previously been able to use the state-mandated closure to renegotiate terms with landlords and lenders, and now expect to face resistance. He says the governor’s order also may affect businesses planning to file claims under business continuity insurance policies.
Some business owners worry about their reputation if a customer gets sick. “If you get known as that restaurant where somebody caught the virus—you’re dead, gone. No one will ever go there again,” says Sam Stuhlman, owner of ZuZZu, a small Sicilian restaurant in Roswell, Georgia. Out of concern for the health of his staff and customers, Stuhlman halted most of the restaurant’s operations in mid-March, switching to takeout-only a few days before local officials ordered all restaurants in the area to do the same.
