Businesses roll with changes

Local businesses in Thermopolis have taken significant measures in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and many wonder where their futures lie. The nation’s overall reaction to the Coronavirus has been strong with President Trump, state governors and local town mayors all essentially shutting down many businesses, except for federally recognized essential ones, to prevent the spread of the virus. Some residents are in fear, others are in denial and others have hope in the face of this abrupt economic downturn.

In the window of Discover Thermopolis, a downtown business, the sign says “Open” but the door is locked. Owner Howie Samelson says this is on purpose to limit but not prevent customers access to his store to accommodate the social distancing mandate. Customers can come into the store in small numbers and at separate times by invitation.

Samelson discussed his thought process in these situations. He said he’s trying to “Figure out how to weather the storm, protect my employees both physically, mentally and financially. That’s what goes through my mind. The next thing is, how do we continue to provide the essential services? FedEx and the printing are designated as essential services by the Feds so that no matter what, we will try to maintain this. From the standpoint of everything else we try to make sure we can keep reasonable social distances, keep people able to buy things, to keep them from going crazy, the craft stuff primarily for both adults and kids.”

Samelson has observed a variety of reactions in the community. He said, “You’re seeing sort-of two things. You see fear. I would say that’s the main thing you’re seeing. You see fear and how people are adapting to that fear. My feeling is that the fear manifests itself in different ways for different people, whether it’s overreacting, or it’s denial, that’s what you’re seeing, the manifestation of fear.”

He added, “It’s not just the community, it’s the whole country. It makes me sad the entire country has to deal with this.” 

Samelson wondered about where we are going with this situation. He said, “I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. We all hope that everything gets back to as normal as it can as fast it can, whether that can be weeks or months or longer than that. I don’t think anybody has the real answers. I think that is part of what you’re seeing, the fear, the people don’t have a good sense with the mixed messages that we’re getting. The mixed messages cause confusion. That’s where you don’t know how it’s going to shake out. I think we deal with it in our own way. As far as dealing with customers, it’s just making sure they’re comfortable with what we’re doing for them whether it’s access to the store. We’re just trying to keep people comfortable.”

Tom Butler of the Flying Eagle Gallery added his thoughts to the subject. “This is a really complicated issue. There is nothing simple about the whole situation. The best we’ve been able to do is...the concept that even if our economy takes a dive, we can’t sacrifice people under that. We can’t sacrifice the people for a decent economy. So if people die, I would rather have the economy take a dip and so personally that means that we decrease our capacity to have walk-in traffic significantly. We’re operating with a locked door now and people can come in, but it’s a pretty controlled manner. And I think most of the businesses around here are doing the same things similarly. So, my priority is on health over the economy.”

Butler observed changes in the community due to the situation and offered his perspective of the community pulling together. He said, “I think everyone has seen it a lot quieter. One thing that’s interesting I think is that you hear people saying to buy locally more. In year’s past, I think those voices are probably louder because you know that the restaurants are having a hard time. With all the businesses they’re not getting walk-in traffic, so they’re going to be having a hard time. Probably the only folks who aren’t having a hard time are the folks who are supplying toilet paper to the town, right? And even so, they have to take measures to keep everybody safe, so they’re still having issues. So, I think that’s been a positive thing. People are saying let’s pay attention to local businesses.“

Butler also wonders where we are going in this situation and puts his hope in the bonding of the community.  He said, “It just seems like everything is in a wait and see mode right now. The hope comes from people who are in the community who want to see good for the community, and you see those voices really resounding. It’s really amazing. And in that sense, we are in this together. That’s what is behind they’re saying they’re doing, that we are in this together. That’s where the hope lies, that we can actually work together on this.” 

Restaurants

Restaurant business are significantly suffering since the order issued on March 19 closing them to dine-in food service. They are only able to offer take out, delivery or curbside pick up at this time. Last Friday, the expiration of the order was extended from April 3 to April 17 by Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and State Health Department Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist. 

Black Bear Cafe temporarily closed for awhile but is back open offering to go orders. Typically they have around 200 hundred customers in a day that dine in, but the take out orders are barely over 20 at lunch time. They now have to see if they can ride this out and recover.

Kirby Creek Mercantile is a new business downtown and one of the owner’s, Shurie Scheel, spoke about how they are handling this situation. They had to lay off their entire staff and only Scheel and her business partner Shailee Harvey are managing the store while their children spend time with them because there is no day care service or school.

Scheel said, “Right now we’re just trying to buckle down and stay open. We reduced our hours a little bit. We’re open just to 2 p.m. right now. We expanded our menu and are doing take out and delivery. We added meal kits too, so people can buy and cook at home. We are trying to do something to keep the doors open until the economy starts to recover. But I think that will be awhile before that starts to happen, even after things open back up.” 

Scheel spoke about how her hope has been in the overall community. She said, “I think that the Town of Thermopolis has been really supportive of the local businesses. I think we’re really uniquely blessed to be in such a great town because the people here are really very, very supportive. And they don’t want to see people close down in situations like this.”

Jolynn Collins, assistant manager of One Eyed Buffalo, said they went from a staff of 26 employees to 11, letting go of all part-time staff. Even though they made cuts, Collins said, “There’s hope for sure. We will continue to offer our current take out, delivery and curbside services. The fear is to have to shut down completely but hope we don’t have to. We can keep doing what we are doing and following our safety precautions. We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback and been thanked for staying open. So we’ve had good feedback on it.” 

Collins spoke about her hope for the future. She believes that “Not only Thermopolis but everyone comes out stronger and together better as a team all around, statewide and in other countries. Nobody expected this to happen, and yet here it is. I just hope we can all work better together as a team to get through it.”

Grocery store

Thermopolis’s only grocery store is Mack’s Market and owner Eric Mackay has seen many customers shopping at the store.  In response to the COVID-19 situation Mackay said, “We’ve been very proactive in our approach, partnering with our supplier who we participate in a program down there called Food Safety. They give us a bunch of different avenues to pursue to make sure that we’re being safe in all aspects of our business. That gives us a lot of resources that we’re able to generate a proactive approach to limit exposure as far as we can. “

Regarding his observations of any changes in the community, Mackay said, “I can’t speak to their nature if they’re afraid or scared or panicked or anything like that, but there are people who have stocked up a little bit more, but there are also people who have followed their particular buying patterns with no change. We have seen people buy more than they have anticipated, perhaps because of other things in other communities they’ve seen. Toilet paper is an obvious example. There have been other things they’ve suggested you have on hand such as hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies.”

Mackay also made additional changes to the store to help stop the spread of contamination of the virus. He said, “We’ve put in place some sneeze guards for our cashiers to protect the guest and the cashier from incidental transmission through close contact because our cash registers have close proximity. It’s difficult to keep six feet apart from people. And we have placed signs throughout our store suggesting giving a six-foot space to people. Other changes we’ve had to make is limiting the number of items that a person can purchase at a time in order for us to help provide a better opportunity for other people to get an item or a particular set of items.”

Mack’s Market has had no layoffs and only a single hire at this time. Mackay said, “I particularly hope that our community has learned that we can rally around each other and support each other and take care of each other in the respect we can buy local and get the things that we need for our families and have all our needs met here in this community.”

Convenience stores

Maverik gas station and convenience store has temporarily halted customers from getting refills on soda and coffee drinks. They also have yellow squares taped on the floor to implement social distancing since there is limited room in the store. Also, new temporary store hours from being open 24 hours a day to now, 5 a.m til 10 p.m.

Southside Travel Center is offering a truck driver/delivery person special with the option of a free shower or meal. They are open 5 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday and 6 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Salons

Two area salons closed to walk-in services are continuing to offer retail sales of shampoo, conditioner, etc.

Beth Benavidez, owner of A Cut Above, said she will meet customers at the salon or deliver products to them. She can be reached at 921-8573.

Maralee Hilzendeger, owner of NuVogue Salon, is available at the salon for retail purchases. Contact her at 864-2210 and she will meet you at the salon if needed.