For businesses throughout Cottonwood and the surrounding area, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant an uncertain future, with many having to adapt to business without allowing customers to congregate.
It has been less than a year since TeaEazy, Julie Fernatt’s specialty tea shop in Old Town, first opened in June.
Fernatt had been mostly managing her shop alone in its first year. With signs of early success in her first year, she recently hired her first part-time employee.
With Cottonwood Mayor Tim Elinski ordering all restaurants and bars in Cottonwood closed to public gatherings on March 20 and limiting them to takeout-only, Fernatt closed her tea shop. Her shop could have been open for takeout orders, but the steep drop in foot traffic and customers did not make it worth it to pay expenses and keep up the shop, even if she let the new employee go after just one week and continued running the shop solo.
“It’s heartbreaking because I’ve worked so hard for this,” Fernatt said. “This is the month that would have pushed me over the top, so that part’s killing me. But I also feel kind of lucky in a way. I’m not having to lay off a lot of people that I love, and I have amazing landlords, so I feel like I can go a few months in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens. If things get better, I can come back gangbusters.”
“People are kind of struggling, for sure,” said Christian Oliva Del Rio, president of the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce. “But I’m kind of excited that a lot of them are thinking outside of the box, thinking of ways to stay in business.”
Groups like the chamber and the Old Town Association have been looking for ways to promote local companies that, despite the hardship, are remaining in business, even if that business may have changed. The chamber is encouraging local restaurants that are still able to handle takeout orders to embrace Arizona TakeOut Weeks, an initiative being pushed by the Arizona Restaurant Association, to advertise takeout menus and encourage people to visit local restaurants even if they cannot dine in.
“The people that work down here, the day-to-day workers, are amazing,” Fernatt said of her fellow Old Town businesses. “Everyone is checking on each other. I birthed a baby and I didn’t have this much support from people.”
Even as businesses lose much of their regular clientele, they are some- times finding new ways to make up for it.
At Vineyards Bed & Breakfast in Cornville, Tambrala Shurman said that 80% of her clientele had canceled in the midst of what is normally the busiest tourist season in the area. Since she had been refunding full costs to those who canceled, Shurman said the financial hit was immense.
However, Shurman has still managed to keep one of the homes open and has seen new customers from Phoenix and the surrounding area book instead, choosing to escape the city while social distancing. With some of the local wineries still delivering even if customers cannot spend their time there, Shurman is trying to provide visitors with as much of the Verde Valley experience as she can.
“I’m trying to convince people that it is safe up here,” Shurman said. “You’re out in the country. You’re not near people. You can still enjoy what the area has to offer but in a creative way. The hiking is phenomenal. Come stay in the tiki tree house, have some wine and food delivered to you and go out and hike and sit by the creek and just enjoy the entire area.”
Other businesses have not been so lucky. Main Stage, the largest bar and concert venue in Cottonwood, shuttered its doors.
“Although I knew this was coming, there is still something overwhelmingly emotional when you lock up the doors the final time before this shut down,” wrote Becca Riffle, Main Stage’s owner. “Although I know I am not alone, and I know it’s for the greater good of our communities, it is still scary and uneasy. As small business owners, we give our all to what we have created. It is our livelihoods and this is a very uneasy time.”
In the meantime, Main Stage is paying its bartenders an hourly wage, still far lower than what they would normally make in tips, in an attempt to keep things as normal as possible during the shutdown.
Some local businesses have been unable to even do that. Blazin’ M Ranch, which relies on group events, closed completely during its busiest time of year and laid off all 30 staff members on its payroll, though they hope to rehire them again.
“We’ve encountered a number of major incidents, not in our control, that have challenged us in our 25 years in business and we’ve pulled through them: Sept. 11, 2001, the Great Recession of 2008,” Lori Mabery, managing partner at Blazin’ M, wrote in an email. “But the COVID-19 global pandemic has been the worst, especially since it was so immediate and is still so unpredictable on when it will end.”
Recent legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president not only provides unemployment benefits to those laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions, but also disaster loans available to small businesses through the Small Business Administration.
The Small Business Development Center at Yavapai College last week made a presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, encouraging all businesses to apply at disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.
“There’s no cost to apply, there’s no obligation to accept it, and there’s no pre-payment penalty if they pay it off early, once they’ve recovered and are up and running,” said Jerri Denniston at the Yavapai College SBDC. She also pointed to potential U.S. Department of Agriculture loans for farms and other rural businesses.
“We really recommend that everyone apply,” she said.
