“New Normal” W e l c o m e
i n
D o w n t o w n
t o
a
Z i o n s v i l l e
Writer // Janelle Morrison • Photography // Submitted and staff
Over the last couple of weeks, our local businesses have either reopened after being shut down for nearly two months or have been operating on a severely modified mode of doing business. We spoke with a few local business owners—Kent and Liz Esra, owners at Cobblestone; Lesley Hunt, owner at Lesley Jane; Shari Jenkins, owner at Noah Grant’s Grill House and Oyster Bar and Salty Cowboy; and Chris Plopper, owner at Village Mattress and Village Furniture & Mattress—to learn more about what ingenious things they were doing throughout the stay-at-home order and how they are going about the reopening process and doing business in a “new normal” pandemic society. What These Businesses Did to Keep the “Lights” On “Right away, we told our staff to file for unemployment because we figured— early on—they would have to,” Liz said. “And most of our employees filed around March 16–17. Then we immediately started working on a revised carryout menu and groceries menu. We offered that for a while, and then we modified the carryout menu to offer family meals for a period of time before we were able to offer our full carryout menu again.” Shari added, “The first 10 days [of lockdown] were a nightmare. All of the restaurants [in Zionsville] offered carryout, but my percentage was so small before this. For me, this was the biggest challenge because we [local restaurants] offer not only great food but we offer service and an ambiance.”
Chris Plopper, like countless other retailers, had to switch gears from selling out of his two stores and showrooms and utilize social media, websites, email and virtual shopping experiences to sell to his customers. To add to an already challenging situation, Chris recently opened his second store, Village Furniture & Mattress, in Lebanon, Indiana. “We were able to do some business online with Facebook, texting, emails, etc., while our showrooms were closed,” Chris said. “But we were down about 90% from what we typically do at this time in Zionsville.”
Deciding Best Practices While Going Forward As all of Zionsville’s businesses familiarize themselves and their staff with the governor’s guidelines on how to safely
ZIONSVILLE MONTHLY
Zionsville_2020May_Zville Community Business Reopening.indd 27
27
“reopen” the state, they are also deciding how to reopen their businesses based on their respective comfort levels and those of their staff. “We had a big meeting with our staff and talked about everything we need to do for the safety of our staff and guests,” Liz said. “Nobody’s gone through [a pandemic] before, so we’re having to work our way through it. We are back to serving lunch and dinner and will continue our carryout/curbside service.” Kent added, “We are requiring our entire front- and back-of-the-house staff to wear masks and have put up signage encouraging our guests to wear masks when they’re not eating or drinking. We will also have our carryout customers pick up their orders outside to keep people from gathering in our small lobby or inside of the bar that is currently restricted.”
MAY 2020
2020-05-14 3:56 PM
