As pandemic puts pressure on small business, chambers of commerce await numbers

Elliot Weld
Piccola Bussola, on Jericho Turnpike in Mineola, has made up for lost revenue by delivering frozen meals during the pandemic. (Photo by Elliot Weld

Although they have no data, Chamber of Commerce representatives agree on one thing: the coronavirus pandemic has been devastating for small businesses in Nassau County.

“I must tell you, in my opinion, it’s a horrific situation we’re in,” said Susan Martin, secretary of the Nassau County Council of Chambers (NCCC), which oversees all the chambers of commerce in the county. “I can’t think of an area of business that it hasn’t impacted.”

Martin said the council has not yet collected data on the number of closures or lost revenue for small businesses in the county, but that there have been a lot of closures. She said the council is trying to work with the county to provide masks and other personal protective equipment to businesses. Martin said restoring consumer confidence is vital to helping small businesses bounce back.

“We’ve got to take fear out of the equation,” Martin said.

Floral Park Chamber of Commerce Vice President Evan Peet said his chamber has not been able to collect data on the pandemic toll because it hasn’t met virtually since early June and has not met in person in even longer.

“But I know that for a lot of them it’s been really, really tough,” Peet said.

Peet said businesses have come to the chamber to ask for advice on how to generate revenue in the pandemic while state mandates have forced many to seriously alter their operations. Peet said he thinks a lot of small businesses are “just hanging on.”

If a large number of businesses were to close as a result of pandemic lockdowns, Peet said, it could be “devastating,” since they are a source of employment for so many in the area, particularly young people.

Forty-eight percent of the American private workforce was employed by a small business in 2015, according to the Small Business Administration.

Mineola Chamber of Commerce President Joel Harris took a different view on the pandemic situation. He said he refused to accept the “doom and gloom” mindset and that while the pandemic has been hard on entrepreneurs, he has seen businesses demonstrate creativity to survive. Mineola’s chamber has not been able to collect data on closures as of now.

“I think the pandemic has affected Mineola as it’s affected the rest of the country. We have businesses that have been able to successfully navigate the challenges and those who have not been able to operate due to mandates from the state,” Harris said.

One restaurateur that Harris said has put his creative worth to the test is Tony Lubrano, owner of Piccola Bussola in Mineola. When the pandemic hit, Lubrano and his staff began making individual frozen meals and selling them for $12. He had his wait staff packing meals and delivering them and did not have to lay off any workers, although some did voluntarily opt to not work over fears of contracting the virus at work.

Lubrano also began working with charity groups to deliver the frozen meals to essential workers at fire stations, hospitals and police precincts. He said he was reimbursed by the charities, which helped with revenue, but that he provided the meals at a discounted price.

Lubrano delivered meals as far away as Staten Island and at one point delivered a load of 1,500 meals to a police precinct in Queens. Lubrano said these deliveries helped keep his business alive and that the pandemic has felt like a challenge to keep reinventing his business model over and over.

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