For many small business owners, the weeks of closure have involved employee layoffs and fears about not being able to financially recover.

According to a Small Business Association of Michigan survey, a total of 14% of Michigan small businesses, or one in seven, are not certain they will survive the pandemic.

After more than a month, a few small businesses are once again opening up shop, though business these days looks a little different amid social distancing guidelines.

Babycakes celebrates reopening today

Co-owners of Velodrome Coffee Company Brice Sturmer, left, and Paul Vafa are seen in the coffee shop windows, which have been converted to pickup windows in response to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Amy Vafa)

Babycakes Muffin Company, located at 223 W. Washington St. in downtown Marquette, reopened for curbside service and pick-up orders this morning after being closed since March 23 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It had been open for takeout service only between the issuance of the March 16 executive order and the closure on March 23. The store is asking, according to its Facebook page, that only five customers come inside its lobby at one time, and advises patrons to call ahead for pick-up or take-out for faster service. The hours of the store will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information on Babycakes current operations visit https://www.restaurantji.com/mi/marquette/babycakes-muffin-co-/

Velodrome reopens with curbside and delivery

Coffee shops were among the many businesses forced to close their doors in late March. Velodrome Coffee Company reopened May 1 with new services like delivery within Marquette and curbside service through the window of their downtown shop.

“(It was) kind of born out of the fact that we wanted to get things moving again, provide a place for our employees to get back to work,” said Brice Sturmer, co-owner of Velodrome. “And I think the other big thing with us was, we work as directly with the farmers as we can across the globe. And so if people aren’t buying coffee and having ways to get cups of coffee through us then we’re not able to support our farmers across the globe.

“That’s been our motivation for getting going again, getting rolling, get our vendors’ volume moving again and being able to support the farmers that we work with.”

The transition to curbside service was easily done, as a driveway runs right next to the shop’s side windows, Sturmer added.

“We don’t want people coming in the cafe. We want to keep our staff as safe as we can, we want to keep customers as safe as they can be,” he said. “If we can keep everybody outside, just kind of hand coffee through the window. We’ve got an online setup as well at mqtcoffee.com; people can order ahead that way. It’s just completely contactless and that’s the way they can order for delivery.”

While Velodrome has found ways to continue business amid the executive orders, the initial shutdown had huge impacts on the coffee shop, like all other small businesses.

“Unfortunately, when things went down we really hoped to be able to support everyone on payroll through the whole situation but we ended up having to lay off the staff entirely. And since reopening, we’ve been able to bring back our two full-time employees. We’re still just trying to expand as much as we can to be able to allow all of our part-timers to come back as well. It had a significant impact. I think just about everybody felt it in the area too,” Sturmer said. “We had zero retail sales for the entire month of April and a week and a half of March. But we also do a lot of wholesale and online business, so we were able to keep that rolling through this time. But wholesale took a pretty big hit as well.”

In the first few months of 2020, Velodrome was experiencing a 40% increase in business in comparison to the previous year, but the pandemic has yielded different results. From mid-March to the end of April, the coffee company saw a 90% decrease, he said.

Still, the support of the Marquette community throughout these challenging times has been “overwhelming” and Velodrome plans to continue to provide coffee safely.

“I think we’re just going to be lean, we’re going to be really smart and we’re going to be really gradual with how we move forward,” he said. “I think our commitment lies to the safety of our customers and staff. It’s a very (much an) ever-changing situation, so however we need to proceed, we’re just going to be very mindful of safety first and money second. But we feel confident that our community is awesome and will support us.”

Floral sales begin again, but

For Forsberg’s… A New Leaf on Front Street in Marquette, the shutdown wasn’t about just locking up shop, but also the loss of product.

“We’re a perishable store so we had our cooler completely cleaned out and shut down,” said owner Sarah Balding. “We had nothing, not a single flower in it for about three, four weeks and we were just coming in to water plants. When we found out on a Friday that we were allowed to be open, it affected us in a way that we needed to completely refill, start from ground zero pretty much, and work.”

Restocking the coolers was no easy task as wholesalers opened around the same time and were flooded with calls making products more scarce. But since April 27, Forsberg’s has been back to business, but not business as usual.

The shop is currently open just a few hours a day and customers aren’t permitted inside. Flower orders are taken and either delivered to homes or ran out to cars curbside. The staff has been laid off and members of the Forsberg family are running the shop.

“Things aren’t exactly back to the way they were before, (but) they are better,” Balding said. “We’re doing all the cutbacks we can run, that’s why we’re going to have lower hours. That’s why we’re doing everything the way that we’re doing it so that we can have a future. It’s just so uncertain we don’t know what’s going to happen… but things look positive.”

It’s been exciting to reopen to the doors of the shop, Balding added, but the pandemic has presented other challenges for the floral industry. With large gatherings not permitted, florists are no longer providing flowers for weddings or funerals, leaving the need for flowers down to birthdays and “get well soon” arrangements.

“I’m just hoping to see enough steady (business) to keep us going. I’m hoping once it starts getting warmer out we have people wanting to do fun floral things,” Balding said.

Forsberg’s plans to embrace the changes and may host floral craft classes via Zoom in the future.

Those who choose to support local businesses should keep in mind the challenges small business owners have faced throughout the pandemic, she added.

“Remember to be a little more patient with the small business if they’re opening,” Balding said. “It’s hard to have that rush all at once because you’ve been so excited that it’s going to open, but at the same time, you’re so scared that you’re not going to be able to do like you used to do. It’s a very hard game to play right now. The business owners are trying to do the best they can.”

New York Deli adapts from day one

The New York Deli along West Washington Street in Marquette closed its dining room to customers but has continued serving food since the beginning of the shutdown.

Owner Scott Sult said he had been expecting the halt of dine-in services in Michigan restaurants for some time. The deli adapted by continuing to offer their takeout and delivery services while also removing the $25 minimum on delivery orders. Still, Sult had to lay off his employees and break his crew down to just family members.

“It’s been different. Our sales are nowhere near what they were when we were open. But the customer loyalty was outstanding, tips were really great, without the staff there’s no heat on in the dining room, it brought the bills down, at the same time there was no payroll,” Sult said. “So what we were making was maintaining us where we would have been maintained before basically. We have great customer loyalty.”

Sult hopes to bring the entirety of his staff back as soon as possible and reopen the New York Deli dining room when he feels he can do so safely.

“They say we’re all in this together. I think everyone should be patient about it and let the business owners decide when they are going to open their business again, when they feel comfortable and not be told when they have to,” he said.

Trinity Carey can be reached at tcarey@miningjournal.net.