Clumps of fur fell to the ground as Barbara Gariepy shaved a small dog at Canine Corner Inc. in Seekonk recently. Surrounding her were a cluster of four-legged customers, waiting to be groomed, their squeals adding to the near-incessant ringing of the phone.
The work has been nonstop since Massachusetts announced pet-grooming services could resume under the first phase of reopening on May 25. Co-owner Lisa Goulart said it took her and Gariepy nearly a week to return the 350 messages left by pet owners after a two-month hiatus.
While Canine Corner was closed, many regulars had taken their pets a mile down the road into Rhode Island, where groomers had been allowed to stay open. That frustrated Goulart.
Despite being inundated now, Goulart and Gariepy are relieved that customers have returned.
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RELIEVED: Canine Corner Inc. co-owner Lisa Goulart was frustrated that pet-grooming services, such as hers in Seekonk, were shut down in Massachusetts while they were allowed to remain open in Rhode Island, but she’s now relieved to have customers return after being allowed to reopen on May 25. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY[/caption]
Though Rhode Island has employed a gradual approach to lifting its COVID-19-related restrictions, its bordering states have been the last and slowest to begin economic reopening. Disparities in policies among Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut have put businesses along state lines in a bind, adding competition, anxiety and confusion to the already difficult process of recapturing a fraction of the revenue lost during the shutdown.
Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst said in a statement that he was “disappointed and frustrated” by the Bay State’s reopening plan, which he said left many vulnerable retailers and restaurants at a competitive disadvantage compared with neighboring states.
As of early June, Rhode Island had already allowed indoor diners at restaurants and shoppers at nonessential stores, in limited numbers. Fitness centers were opening, too.
At the same time, Massachusetts moved slower into its phase two, with Gov. Charlie Baker allowing activities such as outdoor table service and limited retail, beginning on June 8.
In Connecticut, retail stores are open already, but activities such as indoor dining and workouts at fitness centers are expected to be prohibited until the rollout of Connecticut’s phase two on June 17.
Even within Rhode Island, the once-united approach among the state’s 39 cities and towns showed cracks, as some municipalities consider straying from state guidelines to better address the needs of their own communities.
WAIT TIME
Navigating differences in state business regulations is nothing new to Ken Schneider, who owns ice cream stands in Johnston, Cranston and Seekonk in Massachusetts. But opening the three seasonal Sundaes Ice Cream shops this year presented challenges due to stricter – and more disparate – coronavirus requirements.
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DOUBLE SCOOP: Ken Schneider, owner of Sundaes Ice Cream locations in Johnston, Cranston and Seekonk, prepares an ice cream cone at the Johnson location. / PBN PHOTO/PAMELA BHATIA[/caption]
While the two Rhode Island shops opened in early April, the flagship Seekonk location remained closed for another six weeks. Schneider blamed the delay on Seekonk, which laid out more stringent reopening requirements and a delayed review process.
“It was frustrating,” Schneider said of the delay before the town finally approved his reopening plan. “It’s business. It’s money. It’s my manager’s full-time job on the line and all the workers. This is their summer job.”
Schneider was unable to pinpoint exactly what the holdup was and the Seekonk Health Department did not return multiple phone calls for comment. The Taunton Avenue store has now reopened – although seating is not allowed, Schneider’s anxiety has been eased.
But other businesses that recently received the green light to reopen remain worried.
The doors to five Massachusetts locations of Hunt’s Photo & Video had been locked until June 8 while the company’s Providence and Manchester, N.H., locations have been open after those states gave the go-ahead several weeks prior, albeit with restrictions.
With curbside pickup in Massachusetts generating only a fraction of the company’s usual revenue in recent weeks, CEO and President Scott Farber said he was concerned about the future of the business. In years past, most of the sales came from Hunt’s Massachusetts stores, but along with the delay in reopening, there is a difference of attitude among consumers between the states, Farber said.
“The public perception of what’s going on is very different,” he said. “The general public in Massachusetts, because of the way the state’s framed the crisis, is not ready to flood back into stores, so though I’d love to have stores open, I don’t believe people are ready to go shopping there yet.”
Indeed, the Greater Boston area where several of Hunt’s stores are located has been a hot spot for COVID-19 cases, making stricter and slower reopening guidelines more appropriate than in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, Farber said.
DIFFERENT PRIORITIES
Within Rhode Island, the concentration of cases in Central Falls, which has seen the highest per-capita rate of any municipality in the state and continues to climb, gave Mayor James A. Diossa pause when considering economic reopening. Diossa originally told Providence Business News that he would not begin the first phase of reopening in tandem with the state, but later changed his mind.
He attributed the change of heart, in part, to trying to balance the health crisis with the survival of city businesses that are already struggling. Prohibiting retail and restaurant dining would put Central Falls business owners at even more of a disadvantage, he said.
Should the spread of the virus within the city worsen, Diossa said, he could reimpose a total shutdown.
“The governor is looking at the whole state, and seeing the new daily positives are not very much,” he said. “But from our standpoint, the situation is very different. My biggest priority is the health of this city.”
Acknowledging that case counts in the state’s urban core, including Central Falls, remained “stubbornly high,” Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has expressed support for those communities imposing more-stringent restrictions. But when a proposal in Narragansett in May sought to exempt local police from enforcing coronavirus-related state executive orders, Raimondo called it “reckless,” and “selfish.”
The proposal introduced by Narragansett Town Council President Matthew Mannix was withdrawn when it was clear it didn’t have enough support. But Mannix defended the idea and the importance of town autonomy in making decisions related to COVID-19.
Calling the state’s restrictions on small businesses “anti-entrepreneur,” Mannix said he hoped his proposal would give struggling mom-and-pop shops a little leeway to reopen ahead of the state.
“Small businesses are literally bleeding,” he said. “I was trying to stem the tide.
“I think every city and town should have some degree of autonomy to say, ‘This is what we can do to represent our residents,’ ” he added.
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PEP TALK: Kevin Durfee, owner of George’s of Galilee restaurant in Narragansett, talks to his staff during a lunch shift. Durfee says businesses know how to keep people safe and should be allowed to reopen as long as they can ensure social-distancing measures. / PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
Kevin Durfee, owner of George’s Galilee Restaurant Inc. in Narragansett, supported Mannix’s proposal. The intent to give small businesses flexibility to make their own judgement calls was a good one, he said.
He also credited Mannix’s proposal, in conjunction with urging from state restaurant groups, with putting pressure on Raimondo to allow indoor dining starting June 1.
“We’re not children. We know how to keep people safe,” Durfee said. “I think all businesses should be allowed to reopen providing they can have social-distancing measures.”
WILLING TO GAMBLE
The varied reopening speeds among the states could create a momentary advantage for Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc., owner of Twin River Casino Hotel and Tiverton Casino Hotel in Rhode Island.
While tribal-owned Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun resumed operations on June 1, ignoring Conn. Gov. Ned Lamont’s pleas to remain closed, and the Rhode Island casinos opened on a limited basis on June 8, Massachusetts has kept its casinos shuttered indefinitely. That includes the Encore Boston Harbor, which had cut into Twin River’s gaming revenue since it opened last year.
Encore and Twin River downplayed the significance of disparities in reopening timelines, each saying it was focused on its own reopening.
Frustrated with Connecticut’s decision to postpone hair salons reopening from May 20 to June 1, Cat Thibodeau, owner of Modern Barber & Shave in Pawcatuck, decided to open her salon anyway. She served about 15 customers for a single day before receiving a cease-and-desist order.
Thibodeau faulted Lamont for the 11th-hour change of heart, which Lamont said was in part to align with Rhode Island guidelines for reopening.
“I wouldn’t have had a problem if he made that decision originally,” Thibodeau said. “To come at us 40 hours beforehand, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
Like Durfee, Thibodeau said it should not be up to the governor to set policies for individual businesses.
“He’s supposed to see to the health and safety issues, not controlling the market,” she said.
RESPONSIBLE REOPENING
Raimondo has repeatedly emphasized the importance of compliance with state rules in order to continue a phased economic reopening.
Though Raimondo lauded state residents and businesses for mask-wearing and social distancing over Memorial Day weekend, that was not the experience in Newport, where City Manager Joe Nicholson said compliance on busy Thames Street was “slim to none.”
Lack of compliance sparked one City Council member to propose mandatory mask-wearing downtown at all times – a step beyond Raimondo’s edict that gives leeway for outside settings when people can stay 6 feet apart. The resolution, slated for a vote in May, was postponed due to questions over enforcement.
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INUNDATED: Canine Corner Inc. co-owners Lisa Goulart, left, and Barbara Gariepy groom dogs at their Seekonk pet-grooming service, which was allowed to open on May 25. Goulart said it took nearly a week for the pair to return the 350 messages left by pet owners after a two-month hiatus. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY[/caption]
In a workshop with Council members, Nicholson also suggested limiting town restaurants’ sales of takeout alcohol, citing problems with public drinking. Pledging to work with local restaurants on the issue, Nicholson said he was not worried such restrictions would put the already hard-hit Newport restaurateurs at a disadvantage compared with other communities
“You’ve got a responsibility not only to restaurants but to the people that live here and the people that frequent these places,” he said. “It’s about creating the right balance.”
Casey Riley, chief operating officer of Newport Restaurant Group, which owns and operates restaurants throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including in Newport, was unbothered by the potential to limit takeout alcohol sales. Since Rhode Island has allowed indoor and outdoor dining, the company was beginning to see its revenue climb, including its alcohol sales.
“That’s where alcohol service really shines best,” Riley said of indoor and outdoor dining. “You can get a draft beer, a cocktail in a cocktail glass, a wine in a wine glass.”
That Massachusetts had limited restaurants to curbside pickup and delivery until June 8 was seen as a boon for the Rhode Island restaurant scene, at least temporarily. Looking out over the parking lot of the Boat House in Tiverton on a warm Friday afternoon in late May, Riley said half the license plates were from Massachusetts.
Of course, that meant Newport Restaurant Group’s Massachusetts restaurants were among those potentially losing customers to Rhode Island, but Riley was reluctant to criticize Bay State leaders for the slower pace of reopening.
“For the most part, I think everyone understands that businesses are underwater … and are doing the best they can to expedite the process as much as possible,” he said.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.