What does ‘Open for Business’ mean?

There’s a lot of national, state and local talk about reopening for business - to get people out of their homes and back to work.  It makes for a great mantra and gives hope. But is it a false hope? The question arises because  statements like “open for business” are meaningless abstractions unless they have some real-world application to those affected. 

One thing should be clear at the outset: a one-size-fits-all approach to reopening is a nonstarter. There are simply too many variables, such as:

• How does the square footage of a small business factor into what it means to “reopen”?

• How does the number of employees factor into the “reopen” equation?

• How does the physical layout of a store determine its business options? What about shops like bookstores that depend on lots of browsing?

• Where close contacts are the practice, what exactly does it mean for a barbershop, hair salon, nail salon, or dentist to reopen?

• What about a clothes shop? Does it mean two six-foot-distanced customers at a time? How long can they look around? Does the same formula work for, say, an antiques shop?  

• For a movie theater, large or small, what does reopening mean as far as seating goes?

• What about restrooms in places of public service? 

• What exactly does it mean for a coffee shop or candy shop to reopen? One cup or customer at a time, duly distanced out the door?

• What about a novelty shop or pet shop with rows of items closely situated to one another?   

• What about art galleries that depend on new artist shows with groups of people? 

• For local hotels, how exactly are their owners to deal with all the variables that come into play? For example, is each and every room to be sanitized? What  about the work practices of the cleaning crews? 

• In all of these particular situations and others, what are the specific safety protocols?

• Even if all of the safety protocols are followed, will it be still be economically worthwhile to reopen?  Will the overhead costs of these new realities entirely preclude any meaningful profit? 

• Can curbside delivery options be enough to offset business losses?

• What about the possibility of businesses moving their services and products outdoors to all sorts of vacant lots, private or public? Might that be that a viable option?

• How do plans to reopen deal with people’s perceived fears even if such fears are not medically warranted?

• What does “reopening” mean for tenants with meager profits (if that)? How are they to pay their rent? 

• For landlords, does it really matter if businesses are “reopened” if their tenants can’t make a go of it?

• In beach towns like ours, summer is the season that keeps many businesses alive. What does “open for business” mean to all of those businesses if people are reluctant to go on summer vacations? 

There is a lot of scary financial pain going around in our town right now. That pain is not eased by empty abstractions (even well-intentioned ones) labeled “open for business.” Such abstractions only compound the problem.  And it doesn’t help to add a few inflated adjectives to an abstraction.

Yes, it is a tough call for elected officials to make.  No doubt about that. Still, it is a call they need to answer, but they need guidance.  

The real information and ideas must come from the voices of small business owners. We need to hear from them about what is possible and what not.  A top-down approach alone cannot provide meaningful answers to those whose thoughts of tomorrows invite anxiety.       

To begin to help move the process along, perhaps the Gazette might consider doing news items profiling local business owners and their particular plights, or something along those lines. To move beyond abstractions, we as a community need to know more about the predicaments of real people and their struggles - we need to put faces on abstractions.   
While it is true that the devil is in the details, it is also true that without such details, life can be hell. 

Ronald KL Collins
Lewes