Making Sense of the Coronavirus
By: Morgan Niesen and Ashlyn McQuitty
The hurt of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be ongoing as local small businesses continue to be impacted in the Kenosha, Wisconsin area. With multiple small businesses already permanently or temporarily closed and others in the danger zone of closing, many fan favorites may soon be no longer due to heavily cut revenue from the pandemic. One popular small business that the town of Kenosha has already lost is Jack Andrea’s. In addition to these closures, other businesses, such as Common Grounds, have had to reach out their hand to ask for help in revenue, otherwise, forced closure may be in their near future.
Jack Andrea’s, located on 60th street in downtown Kenosha, is temporarily closed until further notice. For those who are unfamiliar with this popular business, Jack Andrea’s is both a cafe and a boutique all in one. After 100 years of service, Annie Goodman, fourth generation owner of this small business, announced that they were forced to close due to the hurt of the pandemic. Teri Mueller, returning customer of Jack Andrea’s, described this business as having “great service, tasty food and beautiful and unusual gifts”. Although this was a popular business, this closure just goes to show how much hurt the COVID-19 pandemic has had on small businesses all around the country, even some of the most popular ones.
One business, although hasn’t closed, was forced to ask for help because of the impact of the pandemic. Harborside Common Grounds, a popular coffee shop in the center of downtown Kenosha, has been in desperate need of more business. In January of 2021, owner Bobbi Duczak, expressed to Kenosha news that her business was in jeopardy of shutting down. In addition to the pandemic, Duczak had also expressed that the riots at this time had also impacted business. As quoted in Kenosha.com, Duczak stated “It’s slow…definitely because of the pandemic, and the unrest didn’t help at all.” Due to these two ongoing events, the owner was left unsure if the business would be able to continue to stay open. Fortunately, for Common Grounds, after the owner expressed the hurt this small business was feeling, lines of customers waited outside of the shop for many days following in order to provide support to keep the business open. “I knew I needed to do a better job of supporting small businesses in my area when I heard that Common Grounds needed help”, stated Steven Crane, resident of Kenosha, Wisconsin.
On March 24th, 2020, Tony Evers, Governor of Wisconsin, issued the Safer at Home order, to go into effect on Wednesday, March 25th. This announcement due to the COVID-19 pandemic was an immediate hit to countless small businesses around the United States, Kenosha, Wisconsin, being no different. With some businesses closing, such as Jack Andrea’s and others at risk, such as Common Grounds, the area of Kenosha may look different after the pandemic comes to an end, with the end still unknown.
