'Nonessential' business owners grin and bear state-ordered closure

Owner Melanie McCoy hopes she’ll be able to bounce back from closing her Hempfield beauty salon for two weeks, beginning Tuesday.

But, she admits, she’s scared as she joins other area “nonessential” establishments that will be idled as part of a statewide closure of such businesses Gov. Tom Wolf ordered Monday, to help curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

McCoy, who has operated Great Lengths Hair Design on Roseytown Road for seven years, said shutting her doors for two weeks is “definitely going to hurt. This is my business. It’s my main source of income, and I’m the head of the household.”

Three employees also will be affected.

The salon normally would have closed at 8 p.m. Monday, but McCoy planned to stay as late as possible to fit in clients before midnight, when many affected area businesses said they will begin their closure. “We’ll call all of our clients for the next two weeks and get them rescheduled,” she said.

“It’s going to kill me, but I have to do it,” she said of the closure. “If it’s going to work for everybody, we’ve all got to do it.

“I’m hoping our clients will hold back for two weeks and we’ll be able to pick back up where we left off.”

“I think it’s a little bit of an overreaction, but you’ve got to do what you’ve go to do,” Dave Milauskas said of Wolf’s order as he worked Monday evening at his Dave’s N Delmont Hairstyling & Tanning Salon to fit in as many clients as possible before midnight.

After initial shutdown orders limited to similar businesses in several eastern Pennsylvania counties and in Allegheny County, Lindsey Harman was anticipating Westmoreland County establishments would eventually be affected — but not so soon. On Monday, she was working her last shift as a bartender at Joe’s Bar in downtown Ligonier before the two-week shutdown began at midnight, affecting her and a handful of other employees.

“I think we’re all a little disappointed,” she said of the closure. “I hope it’s all over quickly.”

The Wolf administration listed recreation centers, gyms, hair and nail salons, concert venues, theaters, bars, sporting event venues and retailers who don’t sell food or medicine among businesses considered nonessential.

My Fitness Kitchen owner Mark Rullo said he plans to use technology to continue serving about 70 clients of his fitness coaching business at Unity’s Latrobe 30 Shoppes, while Wolf’s order is in force.

Group classes using stationary bicycles and other equipment are suspended to comply with the order.

“We’re doing a lot of soul searching to keep our clients happy,” he said. “We’ll be using technology to give them homework and try to educate them and entertain them while we have a captive audience at home.”

That may include offering Facebook Live presentations to clients, he said.

Rullo is hoping the closure won’t last more than two weeks. If it were extended for as long as two monthly billing cycles, the effect on his small business could be disastrous.

State or federal loans that might be available to affected businesses would be too little and too late for him, he fears.

“We don’t have reserve capital,” he said. “My landlord needs to be paid, and I have all my overhead costs.”

Angela Merendino also plans to offer online content to tide over clients while her Red Brick Yoga studios in Greensburg and Ligonier are closed for two weeks. The closure will affect her as well as 15 instructors.

“It’s definitely going to affect the bottom line for everybody,” she said. “We’ll have to wait to see and hope our customers will come back when this is said and done.”

“It’s kind of hard. Everybody is doing the best they can, said Shelley Ruff, who was preparing for a two-week shutdown of her Simply Made Kreations store at Westmoreland Mall.

“It’s not affecting me like it is other businesses,” Ruff said, noting her husband is the main breadwinner for their household.

But it will cut into sales of the handmade crafts from up to 40 area artisans that she stocks, with sales already hurt by the coronavirus concerns that have been growing since February.

“Its been bad ever since this all came out,” she said.