Business Journal: Another Shutdown Order Pushes Businesses To Get Creative

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an array of businesses to close again Monday because of a surge in coronavirus numbers.

The announcement disrupted several industries. 

Sonya Sorich from the Sacramento Business Journal spoke about it with CapRadio morning anchor Steve Milne.

We're dealing with two major groups of closures here. First, we have statewide closures, which include things like indoor dining, movie theaters and family entertainment centers.

The other group of closures are for counties on the state's monitoring list. Those temporary closures include gyms, hair salons and personal care businesses. Locally, these closures affect Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties.

Things are a little bit different in El Dorado County, because businesses like gyms and hair salons are still open. And Sonya, you live in El Dorado County, right?

Right, I have definitely seen longer waitlists for signups for exercise classes at my gym since this latest round of temporary closures was announced. 

I actually scheduled my first quarantine haircut for this weekend because I don’t know how long salons in my county will continue to stay open.

So some of those businesses remain open in El Dorado County.

Back to the closures ... was this something businesses were expecting?

I get the sense that some industries saw this round of closures coming. You have to remember that most indoor dining operations in the Sacramento area have already been suspended.

But for other industries, I think these latest round of closures may have been more of a surprise.

So it looks like some industries will have to get creative to stay in business.

We’ve already seen that with outdoor dining at restaurants. I expect other industries will adapt. We’re talking about things like gyms, which are moving classes outside and offering virtual classes.

And California Family Fitness, a large local gym chain, this week said it's going to start renting out its equipment to members.

And these latest round of closures are on top of events that have already been canceled.

Yeah, those cancellations keep coming.

This week we learned that the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium, which is usually Sacramento's largest convention, is going virtual in 2021. The convention was expected to happen at CalExpo in January.

The latest decision is significant because the convention usually attracts tens of thousands of people.

It also raises questions about how conventions will look when the expansion and renovation of Sacramento's convention center is complete.