Coronavirus has negatively affected businesses all over the world. The economy is being very heavily hit by this virus due to the drastic slow down of consumer spending. Nonessential businesses have also been shut down for health and safety reasons. This has caused many people to lose their jobs or put their jobs on hold. Likewise, it has also caused some businesses to shut down. This has caused the revenue being made in these restaurants to drop drastically.

“Since March 1, the industry has lost more than 3 million jobs and $25 billion in sales,” according to the National Restaurant Association website. The NRA established the CARES act to help restaurants through this crisis. 

In Ohio, governor Mike DeWine implemented an order in which restaurants are only allowed to stay open for delivery or carry out orders through May 15. You can support these restaurants by ordering through carry out orders or delivery such as Doordash, Grubhub, UberEats and more. 

Some of the local restaurants which are still open are Dairy Queen, Old Scratch Pizza, Graeter’s Ice Cream, CJ Chan and many more. You can find other open businesses by checking the restaurant’s website or simply driving by. There are many more businesses you can support by ordering online or pickup. 

Graeter’s Ice Cream is currently open and they chose to stay open because they believe that they are a part of the Oakwood community and if they were to close, they would not be playing this role, according to the manager of the shop, Molly Humphrey.

During this time of economic crisis, restaurants need our support for them to stay open. Coronavirus has caused many businesses to close either temporarily or permanently, or reduce hours of operation. Helping out your local businesses is crucial during this time.

Many businesses have been taking precautions while being open. For example, Ashley’s Bakery and Graeter’s Ice Cream have allowed a limit to how many people can be in the store at a time. Ashley’s can only have two people. 

According to the BEA website, there was a 4.8% decrease in our nation’s GDP, part of this decrease was due to the coronavirus “stay at home” orders. Due to the stay at home orders, this led to rapid changes in demand for many businesses because consumers began to restrict or cancel their spending altogether. Therefore, this is putting many businesses in jeopardy. 

You can really help these businesses by doing carry-out orders or using a delivery service. This would greatly benefit these businesses before they reopen for outside dining May 15 and indoor dining May 21.