Phoenix Coffee Shop Bounces Back Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
PHOENIX — As local college student Danae Mueller walked into Fillmore Coffee this week, she glanced at the familiar plants and paintings hung up in the café, and the typical crowd of patrons perched at tables and armchairs.
In the midst of a pandemic, customers like Mueller are helping to keep small businesses such as Fillmore afloat.
As she walked up to the barista, she greeted them and began to recite her order for the first time since last year and found herself smiling with nostalgia.
However, she realized that there is one startling difference from her visits before the pandemic and now.
“When I walked in, I realized the only thing that changed is I can’t really smile at the barista anymore because of the mask mandate,” said Mueller. “They can’t see it.”
Though it’s tough for establishments to lose “normal” interaction with customers, some small businesses like Fillmore have made a pretty rapid rebound.
“The atmosphere hasn’t changed because the times I’ve gone to Fillmore before the pandemic, they’ve always been pretty busy,” said Mueller.
The Fillmore Coffee Co., located on 600 North 4th Street, is a trendy café which is an ideal study spot for Arizona State University students living at the downtown Phoenix campus like Mueller seeking a flavorful drink and bright scenery.
Though the business is as lively as ever, store owner Tristan Davies said his business took a hit when COVID-19 swept across the United States.
“We lost about probably 40% of business, but we made some changes with our hours and staffing,” said Davies.
Many small businesses across the nation have suffered from profit loss as some were forced to close, or severely limit hours when the virus was at a peak during the middle of the year.
Accommodation and Food Services as well as Arts and Recreation businesses have been hardest hit with a 69% negative impact in August, according to a chart produced by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy.
Between the months of March and April, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS, surveyed eligible businesses and found that 43% had temporarily closed, which almost all attested were due to COVID-19.
PNAS also claimed that 39% of the businesses they surveyed had reduced their active employment since January to ensure the health of fewer staff members.
To seemingly balance out the lack of staff that small businesses are operating with due to safety precautions, there are also suggested limitations for occupancy indoors.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included a ranking of the lowest and highest risk ways to reopen small businesses. They concluded that the lowest risk would be limiting food services to a drive-through, take-out or curb-side pickup.
The highest risk is allowing for on-site dining indoors with no cap on the number of customers allowed in at a time.
Mueller expressed that she was excited to go visit the coffee shop during the pandemic but, upon her arrival, was confused by the number of patrons within.
“The first time I went in there I wondered, ‘there’s a lot of people, is this okay?’”
Davies said he was not concerned with the amount of people coming back to visit his establishment. He said he believes they can assess for themselves whether they are well enough to enter Fillmore Coffee.
“I encourage people who know they’re well to come in and check out the food and the coffee. They can monitor their symptoms and all,” said Davies.
Davies does ensure that his limited staff wears masks while serving drinks and taking orders at the bar.
As most people would say nowadays, Davies concluded that things could be better for his business, but he and his employees are doing what they can under the current circumstances.
“We’re hanging in there and doing alright.”
This article originally appeared on the Phoenix Patch
