As most of us know by now, many stores and restaurants have closed down due to the Coronavirus. Stores like the grocery stores provide us with food items and other things we might need during quarantine, so stores like that need to be open all the time. However, there are many small businesses out there that have been suffering due to the virus. While some well known stores are doing well in certain areas, owners of certain shops have been very worried. When most stores started to open back up, the small businesses started to find new hope.

From stores that sell clothes to the ones that might focus on health and wellness, there is a new beginning for the owners. Like many stores, small businesses still had to close down in prevention of the Coronavirus, but were able to allow online shopping for many of their customers. But even if they continues to have online shopping, they feared that no business activity would be happening and their business would start to suffer. Once everything opened back up, the small businesses got back up on their feet and started to do the same.

Amy Leap is a hair stylist for a business called My Salon Suite, which is located in St. Peters. Leap has recently been struggling with her business during this time and has seen the impact it has left on her and everyone else during the spreading of the virus.

“It may have been a little harder than usual because I could not see any clients.Due to being a stylist, everything was being closed down. My husband fell ill, but still had to go to work so one us would still be earning money,” Leap said.

Carrie Hitzfeldt is the owner of boutique shop called Pistols-N-Vixens, which is located in the Meadows Outlet Mall in Lake St. Louis. The shop focuses on selling beautiful clothing and jewelry to women that are interested.

“COVID-19 has affected several areas of our business. Starting with the decision to close down our store front to our customers. We had to refocus our business to our online social media platforms as well as our website. Closing our store directly impacted our revenue and our customer relationships. This pandemic has forced us to become more creative to find ways to keep our business going and relevant,” Hitzfeldt said.

Not all businesses are focused on clothing or restaurants. Melissa Strachan is a child psychologist that specializes in eating disorders and body image issues in teenagers. She also works in the St. Peters area. She knows how hard this pandemic could be on people suffering from mental health issues.

“This has been a huge learning experience and exercise in adapting clinical work quickly and creatively. I hope to write an article at some point about my observations, but at this point I will say that it is really hard for people to deal with mental illness in isolation. Everyone is trying their very best. It takes a lot of courage to keep going when a regular, pre-pandemic day was hard. I know this is obvious, but it is such a time to just be kind to one another. We never know what people are dealing with. We all really need human contact and a big hug,” Strachan said.

If owners of certain stores start to open back up again, we might start to see some new hope. However, we should always be prepared for the unthinkable to happen and always be cautious around our surroundings. The virus has also left many people stressed out and we should always be aware of what they are going through and should try to always be there for them. If we continue to be careful and learn to be kind to one another, we could get through this. We are all not alone in this pandemic.