The shock is starting to wear off, and they are formulating a survival plan. Once the government website stops crashing, Mr. Grinstead-Mayle hopes to submit an application for unemployment benefits. The couple’s insurance premiums have been waived for the time being, and they plan to apply for a small-business loan to save the barber shop.

“It’s going to be dicey,” Mr. Grinstead-Mayle said.

In Anchorage, Alaska, José Flores Isaza, 31, just lost his job as a bartender at the busy Spenard Roadhouse. He has been in the business for 16 years, and makes $10.75 an hour. With tips during a good shift, he might make $45 an hour.

The city closed down dine-in service at restaurants and bars on March 16. “It was wild,” Mr. Flores said. “A week ago, I had no idea I was going to get laid off and hoping to get something from unemployment.”

His immediate problem was his $450 car payment and his rent, which is twice that. He called the bank, which allowed him to delay the car payment. Then he went to Costco with money he had in his account and bought food he could live on for a while: potatoes, tuna, frozen chicken, rice, spinach. He applied for unemployment and took some work helping an older woman around the house. He would have normally done it free.

Then something unexpected happened. A friend who had heard about the layoff sent him $450 and asked nothing in return. Mr. Flores teared up as he described the gift.

“I’m sorry for getting emotional,” he said. “I just felt like somebody had my back, you know?”

It was a reminder of how kind people can be, even in terrible circumstances.

“We have to be like that,” he said. “That’s all we’ve got. Nothing else matters.”

Jane Black contributed reporting from Washington, D.C., Chris Kornelis from Seattle, Julia O’Malley from Anchorage and Tejal Rao from Los Angeles.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/dining/restaurants-closing-workers-coronavirus.html

Orwashers Bakery, one of the handful of independently owned bakeries in New York City that sells fresh bread to restaurants, has already laid off 20 of its 110 employees. Wholesale revenue, most of it from restaurants and the distributors that supply them, “was the economic engine of the whole company,” Keith Cohen, the owner, said. Since early March, he said, “it has been in a progressive downward spiral.”

In any other week, Orwashers would have been making daily deliveries of its tender but sturdy hamburger buns to restaurants like Upland, Superiority Burger and the Dutch. Its Rustica and Campagna loaves, familiar by sight if not by name to many New Yorkers, would have been waiting at restaurant doors in the morning.

A few fast-casual lunch spots, including By Chloe, Chopt and Freshco, are still serving some Orwashers bread to their pickup and delivery customers. Many of their locations, though, cater heavily to office workers who have now been ordered to stay at home.

For many vendors, the closings could not have come at a worse time of year. January and February are two of the slowest months for eating out. New spending lags, and old invoices aren’t paid even at the end of the 30-day terms that most restaurants demand.

“It’s the nature of the beast,” Mr. Cohen said. “So as a small wholesaler, you get killed.”

Outside the wholesale business, Orwashers sells bread at local farmers’ markets and in stores, including two of its own. Mr. Cohen is throwing all his energy into retail now, like many others who deal in edible products.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/dining/restaurant-suppliers-coronavirus.html

But there are still 305 of them in the United States, according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association in Stephens City, Va. The U.D.T.O.A. says every state has a drive-in movie theater except Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana and North Dakota.

While most drive-in theaters open for the summer, some of their owners have decided to get an early start this year to provide families an escape insulated by their cars during the pandemic, as malls, concert halls and restaurants shut down. “Who would have thought that drive-in movies would one day again become the most attractive option for going out?” Mr. Frank said.

Other owners are proceeding with caution, watching a situation that changes every day. “I think we’ve got a lucky opportunity,” said Stephen Sauerbeck, who owns Sauerbeck Family Drive-In Theater in La Grange, Ky. “But I also wonder if it’s a too-good-to-be-true kind of thing.”

Mr. Sauerbeck was correct. For the past week he has been in discussions with the governor of Kentucky and the commissioner of public health. While the option of showing movies seems to be ruled out, the state is currently allowing him to sell popcorn over the weekend and lend his venue to churches for services (patrons can sit in the car and listen to the service on their radios).

Of course, none of that is set in stone, he said. “It seems to change every day.”

“It’s a responsibility on our side to be as safe as possible,” Mr. Sauerbeck said. “I don’t want this to be, ‘We found a loophole in the situation, and we are going to operate an underground business the government is trying to shut down.’”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/style/drive-in-theaters-coronavirus.html

But there are still 305 of them in the United States. according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association in Stephens City, Va. The U.D.T.O.A. says every state has a drive-in movie theater except Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana and North Dakota.

While most drive-in theaters open for the summer, some of their owners have decided to get an early start this year to provide families an escape insulated by their cars during the pandemic, as malls, concert halls and restaurants shut down. “Who would have thought that drive-in movies would one day again become the most attractive option for going out?” Mr. Frank said.

Other owners are proceeding with caution, watching a situation that changes every day. “I think we’ve got a lucky opportunity,” said Stephen Sauerbeck, who owns Sauerbeck Family Drive-In Theater in La Grange, Ky. “But I also wonder if it’s a too-good-to-be-true kind of thing.”

Mr. Sauerbeck was correct. For the past week he has been in discussions with the governor of Kentucky and the commissioner of public health. While the option of showing movies seem to be ruled out, the state is currently allowing him to sell popcorn over the weekend and lend his venue to churches for services (patrons can sit in the car and listen to the service on their radios.)

Of course, none of that is set in stone, he said. “It seems to change every day.”

“It’s a responsibility on our side to be as safe as possible,” Mr. Sauerbeck said. “I don’t want this to be, ‘We found a loophole in the situation, and we are going to operate an underground business the government is trying to shut down.’”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/style/drive-in-theaters-coronavirus.html

“We’ve cut it to a point where we are trying to remain sustainable,” he said. “What I am telling my staff is that the present is impossible to decipher right now. We are trying to focus on the future.”

When that future comes, reopening restaurants will come as a slow wave. Chains, which have the legal resources and corporate structures to navigate the complex process of securing government loans and grants, will probably reopen quickly, analysts say. Small, nimble places with simple menus, like burger joints and taco stands, may also be able to react quickly. But the longer the shutdown goes on, the more lead-time fine-dining restaurants and places with complex menus to execute will need.

“Even if we’re only off for three months, you can’t just turn the light switch back on,” said Danny Meyer, who this week laid off 2,000 employees, about 80 percent of his Union Square Hospitality Group work force. “It will take at least four to six weeks to get back on your feet.”

And the restaurant landscape will likely look very different. Daniel Shein, a partner in Nur, is trying to raise capital for Agnoris, a start-up software company designed to help restaurants use data to run more efficiently. He presented the idea to investors Monday as part of “demo day” at Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley initiative that helps start-ups refine their products and pitch them to selected audience of investors.

The paradox of pitching a product for future restaurants while trying to save one from dying is not lost on him. Like others, including Mr. Colicchio, Mr. Shein said the only bright spot in the crisis is a chance for the restaurant industry to renew itself.

Before the virus hit, the nation’s restaurant business was almost overheated, with new places opening faster in many cities than diners could keep up with. Restaurants were essential amenities for developers and gentrification markers in neighborhoods. Rising rents, labor shortages and struggles to find a better way to care for and compensate employees were constant topics of conversation.

When the industry does start up again, many say it will be a time to let go of outdated business practices and develop new, more creative ways to feed people.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/dining/local-restaurants-coronavirus.html

But there was no way to soften the blow for the city’s 250,000 or so restaurant workers. (The number comes from a 2019 study by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School and the National Employment Law Project.) Most jobs are gone for now. Nobody knows how long the city will wait before allowing restaurants to open fully again, but many places won’t be able to survive even a short closure. The business is hand-to-mouth even in the best of times; last night’s receipts go straight into tomorrow’s payroll.

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are full of appeals to diners to funnel restaurant workers a little cash by buying gift certificates or branded T-shirts, or by sending money directly or indirectly. Restaurants are for-profit operations, at least in theory, but, for those of us who can’t imagine life without them, they act more like cultural institutions. If you’d give money to keep the opera going, why not pay a little to keep the restaurant workers afloat?

People have been giving. There’s a lot of talk about supporting takeout and delivery, which are still legal in New York. This is wonderful. And it won’t be enough. It won’t even come close.

Because many of the fixed expenses of operating a restaurant haven’t stopped. There is still rent to pay, and taxes, like the New York State sales tax bill due on Friday. Those bills alone could crush restaurants in a matter of weeks, unless they have heaps of cash in reserve.

“Postponing or waiving the sales tax would be the fastest way to prop these businesses up without the government going out of pocket,” Jonathan Butler, a founder of Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea, said on Sunday. “The other huge factor is how they treat leases. Most people have some form of personal guarantee on their leases. I can’t imagine as a policy standpoint they want to come out of this crisis and have small business owners losing their homes because they had a personal guarantee. That’s an issue that could be addressed by policy in some fashion.”

In New York City, the de Blasio administration has made interest-free loans of up to $75,000 available to businesses with fewer than 100 employees if they can prove they’ve lost 25 percent of their revenue. This is a bit of a terrible-food-and-such-small-portions situation, some restaurateurs say; $75,000 won’t get most restaurants very far, and yet repaying it could be a major burden for owners, particularly if they have personally guaranteed the loan.

“There’s going to have to be a huge stimulus behind this to bail out small businesses,” Mr. Colicchio said. Industry leaders seem to be coalescing around asking for cash, perhaps in grants targeted to individual businesses, as well as aid for the hundreds of thousands of restaurant workers who suddenly have no income.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/dining/restaurants-coronavirus.html

Just a day before Governor Cuomo ordered all venues that seat 500 people or fewer to operate at half capacity, Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to continue to eat at restaurants, and emphasized that the virus isn’t transmitted through food and drinks.

“It’s complicated messaging,” said Mitchell Davis, the chief strategy officer of the James Beard Foundation, which announced Thursday that it was postponing its annual suite of spring culinary awards events in New York and Chicago until the summer. The organization has also canceled some upcoming events at the James Beard House in Manhattan, and is working on a set of health and safety protocols to distribute to restaurants.

“The biggest challenge we feel is how to be supportive of the industry, which is facing very real challenges, but be responsible when we are saying to people, ‘Go eat at restaurants,’ ” he said.

Without any clear guidelines and guest counts sliding each day, restaurants both big and small are trying to do what they can. Many are sending customers newsletters suggesting delivery or takeout options and emails about sanitation measures. Buffets are being replaced with à la carte items; line cooks are using more utensils and gloved hands to finish dishes; and communal silverware containers are being shelved. Booths and tables are being thoroughly wiped down between guests.

At Automatic Seafood and Oysters in Alabama, one of the few states that hasn’t had a verified coronavirus case, walk-in traffic has slowed, although reservations have not. But the staff is trying to prepare for what’s coming, and do what they can to protect public health.

“We are wiping down the telephones, the computer keyboards, the bathroom door handles — anything staff would touch in the back we are now very O.C.D. about,” said Suzanne Humphries, who owns the Birmingham restaurant with her husband, the chef Adam Evans. “We’re thinking of our guests, of course, but thinking of what changes we can do to protect everyone internally.”

That might even mean taking the temperature of every staff member before a shift starts. “It’s scary to think about, but we have to think outside the box,” Mr. Evans said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/dining/restaurants-coronavirus.html

“It truly is an unknown,” Barry Diller, Expedia’s chairman, said of the coronavirus on an investor call last month. “All we’re trying to do is separate what we absolutely believe is the effect of the virus from our ongoing business, so we can prepare ourselves and make that ongoing business as strong as possible when this thing is over.”

One of the hardest hit may be Airbnb, where millions of hosts have listed their properties for short stays since the company was founded in 2008. (Airbnb takes a cut of their fee.) Over the years, Airbnb hosts have become increasingly sophisticated, with mini-economies springing up to cater to the hosts’ needs for cleaning and management of the properties. Competitors like Booking.com followed by moving into rentals of vacation homes.

Now Airbnb finds itself on strategically tricky ground.

The San Francisco company, valued at $31 billion by private investors, said in September that it planned to go public this year — even though the initial public offering market for high-profile, money-losing start-ups has been rocky. Airbnb has indicated that it planned to go public via an unusual method known as a direct listing, where no new shares are sold. And it is under pressure to complete a listing this year because some of its current and former employees’ shares in the company will otherwise expire.

The offering may now be in question. Nick Papas, an Airbnb spokesman, would only refer to the company’s previous announcement that it planned to go public this year. But stock market volatility and a big blow to business from the virus may make it unthinkable for any company to go public soon.

Last week, Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, sent an email to employees outlining the company’s response to the virus. In the message, he said Airbnb would grant some refunds to customers and establish a $10 million fund to support Chinese rental operators while tourism to the country, where the outbreak started, has halted.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/technology/airbnb-hosts-coronavirus.html

But she is not done. Ms. Hicks is assembling the next group of women to work in skilled-trade industries. With support of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, a city-funded incubator for women-owned businesses in Atlanta, her latest venture is a career development agency and training center to help women get jobs in male-dominated industries. It will start this summer in Atlanta, with plans for nine more centers to open in cities across the country, including Detroit and Englewood, Calif.

“I am tired of being the only, the first,” she said. “I’m working to try to change that. I look at construction as the last frontier for women. I don’t think it’s any better than when I started. It takes a long time to change culture. And it’s not where it needs to be for women to feel there is a real opportunity.”

Apprenticeships like the one Ms. Hicks held provide on-the-job training and are vital to the success of women in the skilled-trade sector. In 2017, however, only 7.3 percent of those completing registered apprenticeships were women.

“Growing the number of women in construction or the trades is no small feat,” said C. Nicole Mason, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “It takes a tremendous amount of coordination between work-force development programs, labor unions, contractors and the government. These are higher-paying jobs with benefits, and potential for increased earnings over time — all things that are particularly meaningful for working women with families.”

But change has been incremental.

“Although huge strides have been made over the last several decades, there does remain a significant lack of diversity of women and women of color in the skilled trades and construction industry,” said Vicki Anderson, the chief executive of Stevens Engineers and Constructors, based in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/business/women-electricians.html

4 p.m. Went to the vet. My dog Oscar has spinal cancer and had surgery and radiation last year, but they couldn’t remove all of the cancer because of its proximity to his spine. They believe it has metastasized to his liver, which means he might only live another three to six months. It’s very sad.

5 p.m. Creative ideation, et cetera. Ate a quick delivery dinner with Zak somewhere.

11:30 p.m. Talked with Nadia Chauhan, the chief marketing officer of Parle Agro, an Indian beverage company, about some of the creative choices for the upcoming print campaign and TV commercial shoots. She lives in another time zone, so I’ll often catch her late nights or early morning to chat via WhatsApp or calls.

Wednesday

7 a.m. Emails and calls with the production company, client and director for next week’s shoot. I typically eat breakfast and lunch while working on my computer. This morning, I had juice, nuts and overnight oats. I’m trying to eat better because of my migraines, though what I really want is a greasy egg and cheese sandwich.

10 a.m. Went to our photo studio for a small shoot. While I was in the studio, I connected with the team about our 2020 photo studio and prop library, and ideas for the new space.

1 p.m. Answered questions for a magazine press interview, worked on a presentation for an indoor vertical farm company we’re doing branding for and chatted with our producers about operations logistics.

7 p.m. Had a quick dinner with a friend, followed by a massage in Tribeca with my mom and my sister Lauren at Shibui Spa. The spa trip was my birthday present from last year from Lauren.

11:30 p.m. Watched “Fleabag” before bed.

Thursday

8 a.m. We are working on digital video ads for a popular skin care company in Korea. These will run as paid media on social. I reviewed the latest video edits and the client’s feedback notes. My team is amazing and have done a fantastic job with this project; I’m happy with how all the videos have turned out.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/business/smallbusiness/jessica-walsh-work-diary.html?emc=rss&partner=rss