Retail-to-go is the first phase in Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to re-open Texas and its economy. On pen and paper, this plan sounds simple, but implementation and fear surrounding the coronavirus pandemic give retailers pause.
On April 24, non-essential retail businesses were given the green light to start selling their merchandise with certain restrictions. They can sell products if provided through delivery, mail or pick-up options. But businesses in Buda do not feel ready to take the leap. They have financial and health concerns that they cannot put to rest.
“The biggest variable in this equation is do people feel safe to go out again?” said J.R. Gonzales, executive director of the Buda Area Chamber of Commerce. “You can have all the precautions and safety measures and mitigate a hundred ways, but if the consumer does not feel safe to go out, the consumer will not go to your business.”
Based off of Gonzales’s experience with re-opening, business owners worry how they can fund their payroll and pay bills if they do not have a customer base. Opening again means paying employee wages, advertisement, electricity and water bills and risking the spread of the coronavirus.
With many people on furlough, unemployed or working from home, non-essential retailers like clothing boutiques will have a much smaller customer base, Gonzales said. If a person is working from home, they may not need a new blouse. And even offices that remain open are pulling back dress code restrictions to casual dress.
The highest financial priority is food and shelter for people. Other items such as candles, clothes or art, will not be in people’s budgets like in the pre-COVID-19 era.
Re-opening poses other challenges for small businesses. For those who have no social media or online presence, this can be a difficult platform to shift to.
“Some small businesses have been doing online shopping before all this, so they’re better prepared,” Gonzales said, “but all that takes time and money.”
They have to learn new skills, invest more money and energy. But if the coronavirus is going to stick around for a while and regain strength in the fall, as predicted, then it might be worth investing into an online presence, Gonzales added.
“When this is all over, businesses will not look the same,” Gonzales said. “People will come out leaner and more savvy. And if this thing were to reoccur, they need to put some measures in place to retain more cash flow and learn to diversify some more.”
Every business will implement its re-opening differently. Some may only open a few days a week where the owner comes in by themselves, while some may not open at all.
Overall, navigating business in the near future will be difficult and uncharted. They have to balance the safety of the consumers and the employees. They also have to know the return on investments before taking the leap of faith.
But living in Buda means having strong community support. Gonzales has witnessed resident support to the local restaurants and believes these people will use that same spirit with the non-essential retailers. And if community support is not enough, there are other methods that may give some stability to small businesses.
The Still Budaful Stimulus grants or the Paycheck Protection Program were created to keep small businesses
afloat. Still, those are limited grants and not accessible by every business.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the economy,” Gonzales said, “small business is essential to economic sustainability.” When the small businesses fail, they have a domino effect on the city and then the state.
But even with all of the bubbling anxiety about economies failing, Gonzales wants to reiterate the point of re-opening safely.
“Let’s move forward cautiously and systematically to ensure success as opposed to getting too far ahead of ourselves leading to another quarantine due to an outbreak,” Gonzales said.
In the end, Gonzales puts his faith in the resilience, optimism and proactivity of the people in Central Texas, knowing that they will help each other through this tough time.
