(Israel Love, owner of Xcel Fitness | Photo by Ronni Wilde)
As businesses in Central Oregon slowly reopen, owners are working diligently to keep up with the new rules required of them resulting from the pandemic. While most are delighted to open their doors and be back in the business of live, face-to-face interactions with customers, the new way of doing things is not easy. The mandated and suggested protocols are time-consuming, and the necessity of having to tell customers what they can and cannot do has created some awkwardness.
Cabin 22 restaurant reopened on May 15, and owner Mitch Cole said the eatery has been buzzing with activity every day since. “Business has been fantastic,” he said. “We have been full every minute of every day since we reopened. Every single employee has come back. We have the luxury of a very large patio, so people feel safer with that.” He added, “I’ve been absolutely blown away by the community support; Bend is that community.”
The biggest challenge with reopening, however, has been enforcing the new rules, Cole said. “It’s difficult to tell people what to do. I don’t want to tell people not to sit here or walk there. And it’s awkward for staff. I have been here bell to bell every day, and it’s a constant thing, telling people what they can’t do. It’s tough,” he said. “When you tell them, they are awesome, but they don’t necessarily know the rules. We are constantly educating clientele. We have tape on the ground, signs, etc., but they are used to the way we have done things in the past.”
Awkwardness aside, Cole said he feels very fortunate to have the large patio at his restaurant, and that without it, his business might not survive moving forward. “If we didn’t have the patio, it would be tough as a business model to make it. We have to close at 10pm. On weekends, we used to be open until midnight. And with COVID, it takes longer to serve because we have to clean every condiment every time it is used,” he explained. “The major difference is the spacing. Friends who are restaurant owners aren’t sure they can make it with the spacing this way. In the future, this could be very damaging. It’s a tough balance; there has to be open-mindedness on both sides. We have to weigh the economy with safety. It’s just not easy right now.” Cole said that with some businesses, laid off employees don’t want to come back to work because they are making more on unemployment right now than they were on the job. “Not with my staff though; it’s really a blessing to see.”
Cabin 22 offered online ordering and takeout for the first week of the closure, Cole said, but he was ready to remodel the kitchen anyway, so he opted to spend the time working on that. “Take-out didn’t really work for us, so we remodeled instead. When we were ready to reopen for takeout, Phase 1 went into effect.”
A second location, Cabin South, was ready to open just before the Stay at Home order was enacted, Cole said, so the new opening date has been scheduled for June 5. “We have been focusing on the main location,” he said. Moving forward into summer, Cole said he has had some concern about entering tourist season. “It’s a little scary. People are coming from Portland where everything is still closed. There is some concern about that.”
Gyms have also been allowed to reopen under Phase 1, with many regulations in place for doing so. Xcel Fitness, with two locations in Bend, opened its east side facility, merging the memberships from both locations into that one. “The usage for this facility is about the same as it would be during normal times, but with both memberships combined,” said owner Israel Love. “Everyone feels safe, like we are vetting people well enough. I can definitely tell if it’s someone’s first time back to the gym; they are timid upon entry, then everyone relaxes when they see what all we are doing.”
Rules for gyms under the Phase 1 reopening are strict: there are four pages of requirements in Governor Kate Brown’s Phase 1 Reopening Guidance instructions. Love, who said he prided himself on having the cleanest club in town prior to COVID, says that now, “it’s just out of control what we are doing.” When a member comes in, they are greeting with signs specifying requirements for entry, and they get their temperature taken with a touchless infrared thermometer. They are then issued a spray bottle of sanitizer and a towel to use on all the equipment they touch during their stay at the gym, and when they are done, those spray bottles are disinfected and the towels are washed after every use. Twice a day, staff members wipe off every touched surface, and at the end of the day, every inch of the club is sprayed with sanitizer. “We feel lucky to be open, but it’s not the end; this is an uphill battle,” he said. “It takes me twice the staffing to do the same thing I used to do.”
Previously a 24-hour-a-day facility, Xcel is now open from 4:30am-10pm Monday through Friday, and from 7am-4pm on weekends. This has created an increase in payroll and overhead, Love said, because the gym must be staffed at all times in order to keep up with protocols. Pre-COVID, there weren’t staff members on duty overnight. Other changes include spacing out equipment as required and cordoning off boxes on the ground in the group fitness and cross fit class spaces to ensure proper distancing, which has cut class-size capability in half. Some clients have put their memberships on freeze, and Love said he has extended that courtesy even though the gym has reopened because he doesn’t want to make members come back if they aren’t comfortable.
At Xcel, Love said there are many seniors with memberships, and that they tend to come back and feel safer than some of the younger members. “We treat everyone the same no matter what. More young people are wearing masks than the elderly. The seniors have been through things like this before, so they aren’t as frightened. We are going above and beyond what is required. I feel like we have the cleanest club in America right now,” he said with a laugh. “Everything is shiny; we are starting to rub the paint off. People have asked us if we got new equipment during the closure.”
For the time being, Love said his business is surviving, but that the true longer-term outcome won’t be apparent until later on. “Once all this stimulus money runs out, then we will really see what’s happening with the economy. This month and next will be OK, but after that, I think we will find out what it’s really going to be like. I’m not going to make any guesses about the future until Phase 3.” Although most of his employees were excited and willing to come back to work, Love said he was not able to bring everyone back since only one of the gyms has reopened. “Everybody wants to get out and move now, so that really helps us.”
On the retail end of things, Phase 1 reopening requirements aren’t quite as severe as with other businesses. Joanne Sunnarborg, owner of Desperado clothing boutique in the Old Mill District, reopened her shop for business on May 18, and said she feels fortunate that the regulations for retail stores are relatively easy compared to other types of businesses. “The guidelines are good and easy and really reasonable. We are taking baby steps, opening from 11am-4pm and taking appointments before 11am or after 4pm if needed.” Sunnarborg said she is following the rules, but is also working hard to not elicit more fear surrounding COVID. “I have signage up, but I won’t put a sign up limiting the numbers of people in the store yet because it hasn’t been necessary. I don’t want to use the ‘C’ word in here, because people want a break.”
When a customer comes in and tries on a clothing item, if the garment is not purchased, it is set aside for 24 hours. She also has a Plexiglas screen at the counter that is wiped down regularly. “We work with the person who has the greatest amount of fear out of respect,” she said. “I tell customers I’m doing this to relieve any of their fears.”
During the closure, Sunnarborg worked every single day to keep her business going, she said. “So far, COVID has done a number on everybody’s business who had to shut down for two months. I worked every day I was closed. I figured if I’m going down, I’m not doing so without a fight.” During the closure, Sunnarborg boosted her online sales by adding items to the website, and she offered personal shopping services to her regular customers. “I’d call customers and ask them what they needed and would put together cute combos based on what they said. I’d send them anywhere from four to 25 items, along with boxes with return labels on them, and let them shop at home and then send back what they didn’t want.” She also hosted a virtual trunk show live on Facebook and Instagram. “We have had to be creative. The electricity bill doesn’t just go away.” While her efforts during the closure helped, Sunnarborg said she is not out of the hole. “We’ll never make up for March or April or May; it’s not like I’ll have triple the sales being reopened. But the hole is smaller than if I’d just closed my door and walked away for two months.”
Unfortunately, Sunnarborg has not been able to bring back her ten part-time employees. She had to lay off nine of them, retaining only her social media person. “I’m back working in the store, but it’s still just me,” she added. “We’re not busy enough to bring people back. And some are nervous to come back. They aren’t ready to work with the public yet. I do think that for a lot of us, it’s not going to be business as usual. We are all going to have to work really hard to make up for what we lost. But we are lucky where we live. People are loyal and supportive here. I feel blessed by my regular customers, they bought gift certificates and made sure they shopped online. I really appreciate that. That means they had to be thinking about me and the store; that means a lot to me. There are lots of silver linings.”
cabin22bend.com • xcelfitnessbend.com • desperadoboutique.com
