Owners Of Salons, Gyms Feel Frustrated And Misunderstood With Orange Phase Rules
MONCTON – At the end of the day on October 9, Kristen Leffley and her team at Neroli Salon & Spa in Riverview had to change the voicemail message and sign at the door to tell customers the business is closing, again.
“We walked away feeling empty,” she said.
That was the day Premier Blaine Higgs announced two zones in New Brunswick, including Greater Moncton, were going to see more stringent Covid-19 rules under the orange level of reopening. Close contact personal services like salons, spas and barbershops have to close.
“I don’t think we were anticipating being closed after hearing the number of businesses that was still able to stay open. It was tough,” she said.
The spa had to close March 17, at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, and reopened June 1, only to close again on October 10. That means her eight staff members have to be laid off again, and will be accessing Employment Insurance, while Leffley relies on the Canada Recovery Benefit.
Leffley said prior to the June reopening, she spent “thousands” of dollars to comply with Public Health guidelines.
That included asking masked guests to use the hand sanitizers at the door and fill in screening forms – “when they hand those back to us, we would wipe our pens clipboards down,” Leffley said.
She also added plexiglass barriers at the manicure stations, her staff are always masked, with a double protection for certain services, and she had to close one pedicure station to maintain a six feet distance.
For the first few weeks of reopening, she also stopped offering services that would require customers to take off their masks until the industry association gave additional guidelines. Now she feels “confused” that her industry is forced to close again.
“The government laid out for us guidelines to follow and protocols to follow, which we all adopted. I know myself and many others went above and beyond financially, and just the time and energy put into reopening, and in the last three or four months, being able to get back on our feet,” she said. “So just to have that ripped away again was devastating.”
She wasn’t alone in feeling that way. When she shared her frustrations on her Facebook page, Leffley’s post was re-shared 1,400 times.
Ashley McDavid, owner of Luxe Salon in Riverview, even launched a petition to express the frustrations of others in the esthetics industry, which has nearly 7,900 signatures as of Friday afternoon. She’s hoping the petition will get Premier Higgs and New Brunswick’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Jennifer Russell to reconsider what can and cannot open under the orange level.
“Dining rooms and bars still remain open where people go face to face. Still sitting in those places, it’s just as risky. So either close us all or let us be open as well,” McDavid said.
“A lot of people really enjoy getting beauty services. Making sure their hair is cut, their nails are done, eyebrows waxed, things like that. Not only for our clients but for the mental health of our staff. Our industry is made up of a lot of single moms, which is just heartbreaking because they are not working right now,” she added.
Leffley echoes McDavid’s sentiments.
“The first time around it impacted most industries and businesses. It was scary but there was still somehow comfort in knowing that we’re all in the same boat. This time I feel like we’re not all in the same boat.”
Both Leffley and McDavid say beauticians take sanitation and disinfection to heart, even prior to Covid-19. The industry’s association also regulates and licenses service providers.
Leffley said she’d gladly stop providing services that require masks to be taken off, and change more protocols, if it means her business can stay open.
“Instead of being open and being able to contribute to the economy while earning my own income, myself and my team are now relying on government subsidies. We want to work. We just want help from the government. If they feel they need to change the way we operate, then let’s do that instead of closing,” she said.
Leffley started her business in 2014 when she was 22. Growth had taken her to the Pinewood Rd. location in 2017. Now she has a larger team and more services. She said what she loves about being in the esthetics industry is seeing her clients’ mood change.
“When they come in and they’re carrying the stresses of life, especially right now, being able to just be the light for a little while and kind of change their mood and how they feel about themselves and see them walk out the door in a totally different way, it’s rewarding,” she said.
While she can access loans from the federal government to stay afloat, “it’s hard to rely on those. You build a business to grow and stand on your own,” she said. This second closure will put any plans of expansion on hold.
“It’s tough when we have plans, we have goals and we hit pause, and we don’t know for how long. In order for businesses to grow, they need to do well. And businesses don’t do well at a standstill.”
Fitness Industry Also Under Stress
Just a few doors down from Leffley’s business is JusFit, a gym catering to “people who are not necessarily comfortable in really big box, larger gyms,” as owner Julie Solbak describes it.
Gyms also had to close under the orange phase rules, putting Solbak in a tough place.
“We were so incredibly exhausted from implementing the new mask rule that had come literally the day before, and trying to figure all that out, spending hours, posting new regulations on social media, sending emails out, answering phone calls,” she said. “So just to hear that we went through all tat work, and the very next day, we’re told that we’re in the very small number of businesses that are closing now in the orange phase, it was just, like, exhaustion, frustration and just really sad.”
Solbak said safety and cleanliness standards have changed very much since March, to comply with Public Health guidelines.
At JusFit, which only opened last year, Solbak had to rely on volunteers to help move equipment to follow physical distancing rules. She bought extra cleaning agents, cloths and spray bottles for individual members to use, and implemented reservation systems for members.
While WorkSafe NB has guidelines for businesses, the lack of check-ups and industry specific guidelines left Solbak wondering what could be done better.
“We think we’re doing it fantastic, but if we could do it better, that’d be great,” she said. “And it doesn’t make sense that they’re evaluating our risk right now as the same as what it was in March because we are not the same as we are in March.”
“We would love to be monitored. We’d love to have rules and regulations so that we can be included in the open in the orange phase. I think we can do it safely,” she added.
This second closure is “really scary,” Solbak said.
During the first closure, she tried keeping members engaged through online content.
“But with the amount of apps out there for very few dollars, it’s really, really hard to compete with a cell phone and a tiny empty studio,” she said.
Even though federal government funding is helping her get by, she’s not optimistic her business will be around next year.
“I don’t think that we would survive if every time we get to orange we’re closing again. It was very difficult financially the first closure – 14 weeks,” she said. “But if changes are made, maybe we could [survive].”
Chamber of Commerce of Greater Moncton CEO John Wishart says the provincial government will have to be clearer on why certain businesses can stay open and others can’t.
“From an optics point of view, people would wonder, like Costco on a weekend, there are thousands of people that go through there. Can you adequately keep social distancing as much in check as a small dress shop that may have a maximum of two people shopping?”
“Then there’s the whole point of hair salons and spas,” he added. “They obviously take sanitization to heart regardless of pandemic or no. And they’re being forced to close while other restaurants etcetera are allowed to open. So…it seems the longer we go, the more gray areas come to the surface and people start to question regulations…the longer this goes, the tougher it will be especially for small business operators to keep on board.”
Wishart said while a new federal commercial rent assistance program, and an extended employee wage subsidy program would help, the provincial government needs to step up too.
“During the first wave of the pandemic, we lobbied for additional support at the provincial level, and it was met with deaf ears. And now the Higgs government has a majority and has a long runway in terms of financial recovery. We would ask them to step up again and look especially at those sectors that are hardest hit, how can the province play a role in support of what the federal government is doing,” he said.
“We all know that the province is in bad financial shape…the debt is climbing again, but there might be a case to be made that if you’re going to spend some money, now is the time to get us through the next six months to a year.”
Besides the salons, gyms and other businesses forced to close in phase orange, Wishart said retailers, restaurants and bars are also facing a tough time. Patio season is over, and people are more spooked to go out to eat, drink or shop, during the biggest shopping season of the year leading to Christmas.
Wishart encourages the public to keep supporting local businesses.
“I think we’re at the point where we need to reach some sort of equilibrium where we can live with the virus,” he said. “There may be a case where, if there’s a severe outbreak, then you know we need to close. There’s no option. But these sort of more minor rise and falls of cases, maybe we have to reach a point where we understand how to live with that in the community.”
With files from Tara Clow, news director with The Bend 91.9, a Huddle content partner.