Reopening RI: Small Business Owners Worry About Survival

PROVIDENCE, RI — Over the weekend, Rhode Island became the first state in the Northeast to relax strict stay-at-home guidelines and allow some nonessential businesses to begin reopening. Patch surveyed local business owners to ask how they have been affected by the lockdown and whether they agree with the reopening guidelines.

The majority of 19 business owners who responded to the survey said they agree with the decision to begin Phase One of reopening over the weekend. Nearly 58 percent said they agreed with the timeline, while 31 percent said they did not.

In order to reopen during Phase One, businesses must follow strict guidelines from the Rhode Island Department of Health, including mask requirements, enforced social distancing and frequent cleaning, especially of high-touch surfaces. Despite these regulations, most business owners said they plan to reopen as soon as possible.

But while most business owners said they plan to reopen right away, most said it will take a while to recover, possibly because the number of customers allowed into a store is strictly limited. The same will be true once outdoor dining is allowed at restaurants, when 20 tables with up to five people each, or 100 customers total, will be allowed to be served at once.

The largest concern for many small businesses in Rhode Island, as for those in the rest of the country, is survival. Eat-in dining has been banned at all Rhode Island restaurants since March 16, while essential stores were closed when the stay-at-home order was announced March 28. Owners were faced with the difficult decision of closing temporarily or offering online ordering and curbside pickup while keeping employees socially distanced and safe.

Responding business owners were evenly split in their uncertainty about the future. Approximately one-third said they were worried that their businesses would not survive the effects of the shutdown, while another third said they were not concerned. The remainder were unsure.

Gov. Gina Raimondo has repeatedly said that small businesses are her main focus when it comes to reopening the economy. For this reason, Phase One was built with employers in mind, allowing nonessential stores to reopen and some employees to return to work at offices.

During Monday's daily news briefing, Raimondo said she hopes to use some of the state's federal coronavirus stimulus money to help small businesses recover financially.

"We definitely intend to use some of our COVID-relief fund to give a hand to some of our small businesses," she said.

Reopening Rhode Island: Read more

• Reopening RI: Outdoor Dining At Restaurants Starts May 18
  
• 176 New Coronavirus Cases In Rhode Island; 8 Deaths
  
• What To Know About Phase One Of RI's Reopening
  
• Raimondo: RI Needs A 'Slow And Steady' Reopen
  
• Executive Order To Require Face Coverings In Rhode Island
  
• Reopening RI: Regulations Announced For Phase 1 Businesses