Small businesses are among the hardest hit because of the coronavirus lockdown in various countries. They are unsure whether they will recover from the economic slowdown or not and wondering how to pay employees whose livelihoods may get affected by whatever decision is amde.
In the US, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases have reportedly crossed 1 million, and in Georgia alone there are over 17,000. The case of a restaurant owner in the town of Smyra who has been forced to close down her eatery and lay off most of her staff is just one of the many tragic outcomes of this. However, she did not do this without a kind gesture first.
Vittles Restaurant has been in business of serving southern food for more than three decades but like most small businesses it has fallen on hard times due to COVID-19.
Instead of letting her staff go without a pay check, Charity Salyers reportedly decided to sell her treasured 2016 Ford Mustang GT - and use the $11,000 (Rs 8,27,000, approx.) she made from the sale to pay her eight employees and cover rent.?
Her restaurant earnings had reportedly dropped from an average of $3,500 (Rs 2,63,000, approx.) to just $300 (Rs 22,560, approx.) and to keep it afloat and pay the employees, she had to? make the difficult choice of selling the V8-powered muscle car.
"At that time, I just had to make a rash decision, and that was the only thing I could do to make enough money to carry myself forward for a few months and stay open," MSN quoted Salyersas saying.?
She added that the money would, "carry me forward for two months. And I figured two months would give us enough time for these [Covid-19 case] numbers to go down and be able to reopen."
She had bought the candy apple red Ford with a 5.0-litre motor just a few months before the pandemic and it was her only car, now, two of her employees are giving her lifts to and from work.
What Salyers did was very brave and kind, but it also shows a business owners helplessness in the face of a crisis. Here's hoping the tides turn soon.