At The Point Fitness Center, people of all ages enjoyed having 24/7 access to a gym where they can lift weights to get stronger or burn fat on a treadmill.
Now, many of those customers have nowhere to go and will be confined to their homes or nearby outdoor areas becuase of the coronavirus (COVID-19). During the week, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order to shut down close-contact businesses and 50-plus member gatherings. Along with indoor exercise facilities, some of the listed places are barbershops, beauty salons, spas, massage parlors and tattoo parlors.
Many feel that the closures will be another blow to economy.
“I know (the orders) cause hardship for a lot of people. I do not treat these decisions lightly,” Cooper stated in a news release. “We have made them in the interest of health and safety.”
The Point Fitness Center is the only gym in Roseboro and because of that it attracts a lot of customers every day. But before the governor made his executive order, a decision was made Monday to shut down the building which provides 24/7 access for customers. That decision was made for safety reasons.
“We have a lot of clients who come not just from Roseboro, but all over the county, particularly Autryville, Salemburg and even Clinton,” said gym owner Gilbert Owens. “Just to be safe, we decided to close. We already knew that the governor was going to make that proclamation this week, but we didn’t know it was going to be effective Wednesday.”
For business, Owens said it’s going to hurt tremendously because of a payment system where customers pay ahead of time for services, which are no longer available.
“We are going to have to reimburse, which will involve a great deal of work, patience, and paperwork,” he said. “In the meantime we are closed and we don’t know until the governor gives us the OK, when we will be open again.”
But like many business leaders, Owens feels that it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to COVID-19, safety, and lawsuits.
“If you tried to remain open, regardless of how faithful your customers are and how they want to continue — if someone was to get sick at your facility and you have it open, knowing the current pandemic situation, you’re opening yourself up to a possible lawsuit,” he stated.
Owens said it’s the right thing to do and believes all business owners should adhere to directions by local, state and federal officials regarding the outbreak.
“I think people need to be less critical of the President of the United States,” he said. “I think people need to stop pointing fingers at our politicians and this is a time where it’s imperative that we all work together until this thing subsides. This is a time for all Americans to really work together, regardless of race, creed, or political affiliation.”
Darue Bryant, owner of Wall Street Barbers in downtown Clinton, said it’s important to take people’s health into consideration. The shop sanitized chairs and practices thorough hand-washing techniques.
A concern with the shutdown involves barbers and hairstylists who are self-employed and unable to collect a check unless they work. To help, Bryant didn’t charge booth rent, which is usually charged for barbers renting spaces at a shop.
“It’s one thing to say we’re going to shut these industries down — the tattoo artists, the hair salons, the nail salons, barbershops and all of that,” Bryant said. “But what are these people supposed to do for income?”
Although, business owners such as Bryant may benefit from national stimulus program or initiatives from organizations such as the Small Business Administration, it still leaves many barbers and hairstylists in a bind.
“This is all they do,” he said. “Many of them have families. How do they take care of their families with this situation?”
The governor and other leaders throughout the United States closed close-contact businesses such as barbershops, but Bryant questioned how all of the politicians are still well-groomed for television in areas where shops are closed.
“So where are they going? Governor Cooper hasn’t had a bad haircut yet,” he said.
He also wondered aloud aboutlarge stores still being open that receive hundreds, even thousands, of visitors each day. He believes there’s more risks of people being in retail environments than barbershops.
“I’m very conscious of the fact that we need to protect our citizens, but we’re dealing with customers one at a time when they’re sitting in the chair and we know what precautions we need to take,” he said about sanitary measures. “They taught us that in school and how to take those steps so we don’t catch diseases that can spread from one person to the next.
“Then you have a place like Walmart that’s open — and I understand that people have to get food and stuff like that — but how many thousands of people go through Walmart in a day, putting their hands on the same carts. You have the transition of money from one hand to the next hand, picking up items on shelves? Even just one person in Walmart can sneeze and it could be five other people in front of them — now they’re infected.”
Like other small business owners, Bryant is hoping for better days in the future and hopes to resume business when it’s all over.
“This thing can potentially go on for several months,” he said while discussing COVID-19 cases in the area and beyond Sampson County. “The president got his expectation that things can go back to normal around Easter, but I think that’s a false expectation. I encourage those who are self-employed, rather it be the barbers, hairstylists, nail artists, tattoo artist, just hold on and hopefully we can bounce back from all of this.”
Chris Sessoms, a hair stylists and owner of Chris and Company, was concerned about the order and the impact it’s going to have on her salon. Like Bryant, she also had questions.
“I don’t understand why they’re closing us and allowing dentists to see patients,” Sessoms said. “Contact is contact, but as far as my being willing to do it for the better good … if it’s for the better good, then it’s OK.”
Nearby, hair stylists Jean Honeycutt washed Janet King’s hair while talking about the closing.
“Well, customers don’t like,” King said. “I’m a senior citizen and I can’t do my hair.”
“I feel like we’re being picked on in a lot of ways because there’s a lot of industries that are still working and we’re not,” Honeycutt said. ” I think it could have been handled a better way. We could have worked two days and switched around where we only had a couple people in here. It could have been handled better.”
