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Businesses worry about customers returning

3 min read
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CHARLEROI – Daneen Troup has mixed emotions about reopening her Charleroi boutique after being shut down as a nonessential business for six weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Troup, who owns Prima Diva Boutique, said last week she would hate to reopen and then close again if the virus sickens her customers or if there is a resurgence of positive coronavirus cases that would prompt Gov. Tom Wolf to pull back on the economy again.

“I would rather wait rather than start this process all over again,” Troup said as small business owners awaited Wolf’s announcement on his plan to reopen the virus-stalled economy.

As it turned out Friday, Wolf decided to keep his business closure and stay-home orders in place in the Pittsburgh region, including Washington and Greene counties.

And, there is always the concern that consumers might be too afraid of the virus to feel confident enough to return to small businesses when there is no vaccine or cure for the virus, Wolf said last week during a teleconference with the media.

Some business owners are not going to want to reopen if there isn’t adequate COVID-19 testing available, while others are not going to be able to promise their staffs they will be safe at work, Wolf said.

“You can’t snap your fingers,” he said.

He said a normal routine “seems to be a long way off” until there is a vaccine or a cure for the novel coronavirus.

Troup said she is certain there will be new rules to follow once she is allowed to reopen her shop.

“I’m going to go with the flow,” Troup said. “It’s not going to be the same. There’s an invisible horror.”

On Friday the death toll in Pennsylvania reached 2,354, with the southeastern portion of the state being the hardest hit region. Philadelphia County had 424 COVID-19 deaths since early March while Montgomery County experienced 362 of them. Two people have died from the virus in Washington County, while deaths have been spared in Greene County.

Donora Mayor Jim McDonough, who owns a restaurant in the borough, said he will follow whatever path Wolf creates for the state’s economy during the pandemic.

“No matter what you do is wrong if COVID-19 comes back,” McDonough said. “That would be horrendous.”

COVID-19 became real in this borough on Good Friday when a 47-year-old resident became the first person in Washington County to die from the novel coronavirus.

McDonough, who owns The Early Bird Diner on McKean Avenue, said he believes customers “will come out in droves” once the virus is over.

Leanna Hopkins Spada, executive director of Mon Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in Charleroi, said she has yet from her membership about people having concerns about workers and customers not wanting to return to businesses.

Spada said she has wondered about people having the confidence to go to a movie after living in near isolation for so many weeks.

“It’s an unfortunate,” she said. “People want to get back to work, but are they afraid to come back to work? It’s sad.”

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