Nevada business owners fear impact of future COVID-19 shutdown

Several of Nevada’s largest business organizations joined Gov. Steve Sisolak’s call for people to stay home and increase safety precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Sisolak’s Tuesday night announcement of a “Stay at Home 2.0” self-quarantine over the next two weeks comes as infection trends surge in the state and across the country. The governor’s announcement also served as a warning: Make the choice to stay home now and slow the outbreak or he would “be forced to take stronger action.”

It was always going to be about the long haul, not the initial wave of COVID cases in the spring, according to Cathy Brooks, a local business owner in downtown Las Vegas. A stay-at-home order is for the greater good, and COVID fatigue is not an option, she said.

“It’s like Veruca Salt from ‘Willy Wonka (and the Chocolate Factory),’ who wants an Oompa Loompa, and she wants an Oompa Loompa now. We need to be less like Veruca Salt and more like Charlie,” Brooks said. “So you’re not getting your way. So what? Grow up. People are dying.”

While business leaders in Nevada share Sisolak’s concerns, many are less than thrilled at the prospect of a second shutdown — on top of one announced in March — should the state see a continued rise in coronavirus infections.

Businesses facing a return to shutdown conditions could send them belly up, according to Thoran Towler, CEO of the Nevada Association of Employers. He urged Nevadans to follow health and safety guidelines to protect themselves and create a “better trajectory” for case numbers and hospitalizations.

“We’ve seen so many of our members close down or leave the state because they weren’t able to survive the first shutdown. Many more members are barely hanging on,” Towler said. “There hasn’t been enough time for many businesses to recover. From that perspective, we are completely terrified of the possibility of another ‘Phase One’ type of shutdown.”

‘Huge disappointment’

CraftHaus co-owner Wyndee Forrest said the brewery has already footed the bill to create a 1,500-square-foot outdoor dining space at its Downtown Las Vegas location to help meet safety precautions.

“We invested a lot of money into safety, changing our business model, changing everything that we can, and then for it to be potentially shut down is a huge disappointment,” she said.

A closure would not only impact the Henderson-based brewery’s retail locations but also its wholesale business, which includes supplying many of the bars and restaurants along the Las Vegas Strip.

“Any shutdown has a ripple effect,” she said. “The mere fact of (Sisolak) bringing up staying at home has already halted what little momentum we had going into this month with wholesalers.”

The number of U.S. businesses that have closed between March 1 and Aug. 15 has more than doubled from 36,718 business closures to nearly 98,000, according to a September report from Yelp.

It found companies offering home, local and professional services were able to weather the economic impact of the coronavirus while other sectors like restaurants and retail continued “to struggle and total closures nationwide have started to increase.”

Second wave

Health experts agreed that a fall wave of COVID-19 cases was likely, said Brooks, owner of membership-based dog training academy Hydrant Club, at 109 N. Ninth St. The stay-at-home order didn’t surprise her.

“Anybody who didn’t see that as a possibility was naive. This is a pandemic,” she said.

Brooks considers herself lucky. Her business was considered essential during the spring shutdown, and it hasn’t struggled like others that are scraping by or have closed altogether. She’s raised prices, “tightened the belt” and made other changes to help her business operate during the crisis.

“We are as prepared as anyone can be for a global pandemic that nobody was prepared for,” Brooks said.

Others may not be so fortunate.

The Salt Room Founder Ava Mucikyan said it would be “devastating” if her two wellness centers are forced to temporarily shut down again, especially since Mucikyan recently acquired NVFloat Therapy in Village Square.

“We’re making the bare minimum for overhead with rent and payroll,” she said. “If they make us stay closed, that would be devastating. We were hoping to make it until Christmas because Christmas is high-season for us.”

‘Significant reversal’

Sisolak first issued a statewide shutdown of nonessential businesses in March, hoping to curb the novel coronavirus’ spread. Certain businesses were allowed to reopen over the course of May, culminating with the reopening of casinos on June 4. Sisolak further eased restrictions on public gatherings in recent months.

Infection trends over the next two weeks will inform whether Sisolak orders new restrictions, the governor said.

“The fall spike predicted by all medical and scientific experts is now our reality,” Sisolak said at a news conference Tuesday night. “Nevadans need to accept and understand this reality now and change behaviors immediately.”

Cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco have imposed new restrictions due to rising infections, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered any establishment that sells alcohol to close at 10 p.m.

Similar restrictions in Nevada would be “detrimental for many of our local businesses that are already hurting, especially in the retail and restaurant sectors,” Vegas Chamber President and CEO Mary Beth Sewald said.

“The Vegas Chamber supports the Governor’s request of Nevadans to self-quarantine for the next two weeks because we need to reduce the surge in COVID cases so our economy can more fully reopen,” she said in a written statement. “We do not want to go backwards with mandatory business closures and restrictions, as we have seen in other states. The Governor is right to keep our tourism corridor open and encourage visitors to come to Las Vegas, which will help drive business to the state and keep workers on the Strip employed.”

She and Ken Evans, president of the Urban Chamber in Las Vegas, encouraged the public to support businesses through curbside service or delivery. Evans said the chamber wants Nevadans to stay home, wear masks and practice social distancing to avoid another shutdown. “Our small businesses have suffered enough,” he said.

Resorts’ reaction

Nevada’s tourism and hospitality industries drive the state’s economy, and they’ve been subject to their own set of COVID-19 rules and regulations. Sisolak emphasized Tuesday his preference not to impose new restrictions.

“Some people are going to ask, why not limit retail or casino resorts or restaurants right now? That’s a fair question,” he said. “That’s the tightrope I was referring to. That is the tightrope of trying to balance controlling the COVID spread, protecting our hospitals from surges, and at the same time not destroying and shutting down our economy.”

An MGM Resorts International spokesman, Brian Ahern, said the gaming operator continues to follow COVID-19 directives and focuses on promoting “health and safety protocols for employees and their families both on- and off-property.”

Wynn Resorts Ltd. spokesman Michael Weaver said the company supports Sisolak’s safety efforts and “began implementing various work-from-home programs for all back-of-house employees” Tuesday morning.

Added Virginia Valentine, President and CEO of the Nevada Resort Association, in parts of a written statement:

“Nevada’s resort industry understands the key for large and small businesses to stay open and bring more people back to work is for all of us to adhere to recommended medical guidance, state directives and health and safety regulations at work and at home.”

“We join the Governor in strongly urging the public to do their part in helping to stop the spread, so we can stay open and keep our recovery on track by getting tested, wearing a mask, washing your hands and staying socially distant.”

‘Killing our economy’

The state’s business leaders didn’t all sing in chorus.

Sisolak’s call for a quarantine reboot left the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business “very concerned.” The group represents a number of small businesses throughout the state.

“We need people to feel safe that they can go out and shop and eat, but the governor’s statement this week, asking people to stay home, isn’t going to help,” director Randi Thompson said.

She warned many small businesses are already operating in a limited capacity and wouldn’t survive another shutdown.

“At some point, we have to recognize that killing our economy and shutting our schools is going to cause much longer damage to our entire state’s population,” Thompson said.

Denette Braud doesn’t know what further restrictions would mean for her business, Braud’s Funnel Cake Cafe in Town Square. She tries to stay positive, she said, but her business had only just recently been “on the upswing” following the first shutdown. A second, she said, “would be horrible.”

Braud said “we don’t know what to expect” for Black Friday shopping at Town Square in a couple of weeks. Her cafe could continue to do deliveries or curbside pickup as long as the outdoor mall stays open, she said.

She prays it will.

“We made it through the recession, we made it through the first shutdown, so we will not go down without a fight,” Braud said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter. Staff writer Bailey Schulz contributed to this report.