Editor’s Note: This story is part of a weeklong series marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local businesses closed last March thinking it would last a few weeks, at most. That stretched to a few months. Now, one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, no one knows when it might be business as usual again.
For some, 2021 seems at least hopeful, if not rosy. Some have cautiously been doing business for a few months already.
But for others, the outlook for 2021 is just as murky as it was last year.
The Greenfield Garden Cinemas has struggled to keep its doors open as much as possible over the past year. After the initial shutdown in March, the theater reopened in July with social distancing rules and safety protocols.
But this winter, as COVID-19 cases surged, the state government tightened the rules again, including a new “curfew” advisory against keeping businesses open at night, slowing down the movie theater business considerably, Garden Cinemas owner Isaac Mass explained.
Combined with the fact that winter is typically a slow time for movie theaters anyway, he decided to close the theater for the season, with an eye toward hopefully reopening in the spring.
Now, as vaccines are being distributed and the pandemic may be receding, the movie theater business does indeed look better than it did, Mass said. Within the industry, he said, it is widely believed that movie studios will be able to keep to their release schedules this year, unlike the delays and direct-to-Netflix releases of 2020.
The Garden Cinemas is now set to reopen March 26, just in time for the new “Godzilla vs. Kong.”
“We don’t think that’s the kind of movie that people want to see on a small screen,” Mass said. “You’ve got to see ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ on the biggest possible screen.”
The release schedule is somewhat spotty until the summer, but Mass said industry polls indicate that people are excited to be able to go to the movies after they get vaccinated.
Until then, the theater continues to lose money, Mass said. A major government relief program called Save Our Stages was approved late last year, but the program has been slow to actually become available.
“The question is whether or not we survive,” Mass said. “We’re sinking our own savings in, month to month. I don’t anticipate we’re going to be making much money in March or April. We’re hoping to start making money in May. If this schedule sticks.”
The People’s Pint, a restaurant on Federal Street in Greenfield, opened briefly in a takeout model last spring, but closed again and hasn’t reopened since.
Legally, the restaurant could open with social distancing rules, but it wouldn’t be an enjoyable experience, said co-owner Alden Booth.
“I don’t think people are comfortable going out to eat yet,” Booth said. “I don’t think our staff would be comfortable in there, and I don’t blame them. The dining room just isn’t very open.”
When the restaurant closed last summer, Booth had said he hoped to be able to reopen that fall.
Financially, the restaurant continues to lose money, he said. Even though its brewery has remained in operation, the business as a whole is operating at a deficit. Government support programs like the Paycheck Protection Program have made it possible to keep the business from closing permanently.
A date to reopen, tentatively, might be June, Booth said.
“But who knows?” he said. “It could end up being longer. It could end up being a second wave. Who knows? Gosh.”
The French King Bowling Center in Erving finally reopened in January, after a closure that lasted nearly 10 months.
The goal had been to open by the fall, but there just wasn’t enough interest from customers, said manager Erik Semb. None of the bowling leagues that give the center its regular customers were ready to start up again.
Now, since opening in January, business seems to be going well, all things considered, Semb said. Only 25 people are allowed inside at a time, compared to the normal capacity of about 100, and so bowling is by reservation only. Even the food bar has reopened, though with a somewhat reduced menu.
“People are happy to get out of the house,” Semb said. “They’re happy to go bowling.”
If the public health situation continues to improve, the bowling alley should be able to move from 25 percent capacity to 50 percent. Summer is normally a slow time for bowling, Semb said, but by the fall the business should start to become significantly healthier.
“We’re hoping for a big September bash,” Semb said. “It’s all based on the numbers and the science. As soon as Gov. (Charlie) Baker says.”
At the Balkan Lounge, a bar on Ames Street in Greenfield, the outlook is still very uncertain. Bars have been unable to open at all since March. In Massachusetts’ reopening plan, they won’t be able to reopen until the final phase, defined as wide availability of vaccines and treatments.
“We are stuck because of the restrictions,” said Abaz Cecunjanin, owner of the Balkan Lounge. “I call them — I don’t even know what to call them anymore.”
Cecunjanin also owns Terrazza, an Italian restaurant that has remained open and continues to do relatively well, making it somewhat more feasible to wait indefinitely on the Balkan Lounge.
But even so, Terrazza is now dependent on government aid like the Paycheck Protection Program, Cecunjanin said.
With no date for bars to reopen offered by the state government, the Balkan Lounge remains in limbo.
“I’m draining my funds, and I’m draining my other businesses’ funds to support it,” Cecunjanin said. “Hopefully we can keep up. We’ll see what happens. It’s not looking great.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.