Pete Helow closed his high-end Roosters Men’s Grooming Center in San Marco on March 23 and reopened May 12, with all five stylists and barbers returning and a sixth joining the team next week.
While he remains closed temporarily on Sundays and Mondays, the first week of reopening ended with 298 customers over five days.
That was a cut above previous traffic.
Before the pandemic, Helow said “a typical good week” was 270-290 customers over seven days.
But it wasn’t a good look for the bottom line. “We had zero sales for six weeks,” he said.
Helow received a city and VyStar Credit Union COVID-19 Community Relief Loan on April 28 and a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan May 7.
“This pandemic is a wake-up call for government,” Helow said.
“Every entity was ill-prepared for a total shutdown of our economy. From Florida’s broken unemployment system to the SBA’s inability to handle the volume of loan requests, the excessive delays caused numerous hardships,.”
Helow said his business will survive because he had sufficient capital set aside to weather the mandatory shutdown.
“Unfortunately, many others did not.”
