With many of the “non-essential” businesses currently being forced to shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, many small local businesses are struggling. However, these businesses are essential to the well being of the economy, and it’s up to us to give these businesses the help they need. 

During this time, everyone can help small businesses by choosing to see if the products they need are offered by small businesses. Many businesses that people maybe would not expect to be open still are, so it’s important to be aware and help them out if possible.

Most local restaurants are still open for takeout, even if you cannot dine in. Choosing a local business over a chain restaurant is a simple way to help out our local economy. It might cost a little extra, but knowing that you are helping your friends and neighbors makes it all worth it. 

At Pablo’s Pizza in Grand Junction, the owner Paul Knaysi says they are doing very well, considering the circumstances. A normal night at Pablos consists of about 30% takeout orders, he says, and now that they have to do all takeout, it’s actually going pretty well. Yes, it does help to be a pizza place that most people know and would expect to offer takeout, unlike some other restaurants where maybe takeout isn’t as common or accessible. When people want to order food, they often lean towards more casual food, such as pizza, and Knaysi says he thinks this has helped them a lot too. 

Also, he says the support from the community has been great. People have been ordering bigger orders and leaving larger tips, and every little bit helps. Overall, the Knaysis are friends with many of their regulars, and these people obviously just want to help them out. Overall, everyone in the community can do a little extra to give local businesses a boost, and every little bit counts.

While obviously it gets expensive to eat out often, or order from local businesses instead of large department stores, it really makes a difference in terms of the success of the economy. The Grand Junction Police Department offered their workers a special deal during the month of April to help stimulate the economy, while making it a little easier on the consumers. Basically, for the whole month of April, GJPD employees received half off their restaurant orders at businesses in Grand Junction, up to three hundred dollars. This effort to stimulate the economy helped employees be able to eat at local restaurants more often, without breaking the bank. While obviously not all employers offer this type of deal, it definitely shows that Grand Junction is trying to help out local businesses and give them some extra customers.

Currently, it seems as though we will soon be starting to slowly open back up, which will hopefully lead to only good things for local businesses. As things start to open back up and become more normal, they will be able to regain their customers and hopefully be able to recover. This situation has been very challenging for local businesses, but as a community we can come together and make an effort to help them out. Giving a little extra tip or even just making the effort to shop locally really does make a difference in terms of the survival of these businesses. Hopefully, this pandemic can help make us more aware about our small local businesses and in the future we should continue to give them the support they need, not only to help them recover from a lack of business during this time, but also to support our community.