Hundreds of businesses have shuttered across the state due to the coronavirus pandemic, reveals a new report from the review site Yelp.
A spokesperson for Yelp told NH Public Radio that 449 businesses closed (both temporarily and permanently) between March and July. Last month, 280 businesses were marked as permanently closed in the state.
Researchers counted closures through business owners marking the business as closed, including by changing their hours or through a Covid-19 banner on their Yelp pages. Holiday-related closures were not counted in the report.
For many local businesses, these findings do not come as a surprise.
Before
the pandemic hit, Jessica Moores, owner of the Manchester Craft Market,
said her shop served as a venue for hundreds of vendors. Now, many of
these crafters are jobless.
“I provide an income for over 200
crafters,” Moores said. “So if we’re closed, all of those 200 people
have nowhere to get an income from.”
Despite the restrictions, Moores
has found new ways to bring in money for her vendors. Artists can sell
and advertise their products through the business’s Facebook page.
Chef
Brendan Vesey, owner of the Botanica in Portsmouth and now-shuttered
restaurant the Joinery, told NHPR he’s worried about his business
surviving the fall.
“While things seem to be OK because it is summer,
there constantly seems to be this low-level worry that spikes at
times,” Vesey said. “I would be amazed if we served or did New Year’s
Eve in the restaurant or Valentine’s Day.”
With an increasing demand
in outdoor dining, Vesey says he’s seeking to add staffers. However,
he’s been struggling to fill these positions because of applicants’
fears of contracting the virus.
Before the pandemic, Vesey says the
Botanica just celebrated its first birthday, and he was looking ahead to
a busy indoor spring season. But, even as the restaurant remains afloat
through federal and state relief funding, the chef says it all feels
temporary.
“It is going to be taken away again,” said Vesey, warning a
second wave of the virus. “It was yanked away with a snap of a finger.”
— TAT BELLAMY-WALKER and TODD BOOKMAN/NH PUBLIC RADIO
