PORT ANGELES – Now that Clallam County has received approval to move into Phase 2 of the Governor’s Safe Start plan, many businesses will be allowed to reopen on Monday. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all ready, or willing, to throw their doors open right away.
Because restaurants and taverns will only be able to operate at 50% capacity while maintaining social distancing and providing protective equipment for everyone on staff, the numbers don’t always pencil out, says local business consultant and regular contributor to KONP Kevin Hoult.
“So I have heard from restaurant operators, especially in other cities, that have said, ‘50% isn’t going to do it. We’re not going to open our dining room. We’ll just keep doing curbside or drive up or whatever. But when we start bringing in the extra overhead of additional employees and additional cleaning requirements and additional disposables and acrylic panels, for us, we’re going to be under water. So we’re going to stay on a curbside basis’.”
Even those business owners who can make money by opening up right away can’t do so if they don’t have the equipment in place to protect their employees and customers.
Salon owners, for instance, have to acquire gloves, face coverings and smocks or aprons for themselves and customers, all of which are supposed to be changed between each appointment. That’s a lot of PPE.
They’re also expected to have plexiglass panels between each station while maintaining 6-foot spacing. Hoult, who owns a nail salon along with his wife Angel, knows from experience that those items are all in high demand and can be difficult to acquire.
“It is very much ‘The Outbreak of the Virus: Book Two’, which means that acrylic plastic is vaporized. It is really, really hard to find. I was very fortunate this morning at seven o’clock to find a local building supply store that had just received a shipment of acrylic panels. And by the time I got there there was only three or four left and I bought those. So the problem is that we need to have the things too. To open but everybody’s buying them so…competition.”