BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — For many businesses in Erie County's orange zone, Friday marks the beginning of their second shutdown.
The rush was on for a haircut Thursday evening at The Real Barbers. Owner-operator Samantha Rosso described the day as "amazing, but hectic" for the Kenmore barbershop. By 5 p.m., Rosso said the barbershop saw approximately twice as many customers as a normal day.
“Today I figured I will stay here until 11:59 if I have to, not only for the business, but for the people that come,” Rosso said.
Scott Baker of Kenmore said he has been procrastinating a haircut for awhile, but knew he could not risk waiting any longer.
“As you can see I haven’t had a haircut since before the last shutdown, so I figured I’d better get in and get one while I can,”
Rosso said she's nervous about paying bills, but is grateful the business saved up.
“It’s hard, we’ve built this up our entire lives," Rosso said. "My father has been building this business since I’ve been a kid and everything we’ve worked for is in limbo right now.”
She said she knows the barbershop will prevail.
Restaurants are allowed to do takeout or outdoor dining, with a maximum of four people to a table, in the orange zone.
The final hours of indoor dining at Cole's in the Elmwood Village wasn't as busy as owner David Shatzel thought it might be. He said less people have been coming into the restaurant once the COVID-19 positivity rate increased.
“Tomorrow I’ll be getting a lot of takeout boxes together,” Shatzel said.
He said the restaurant relies more on indoor dining than takeout, and will be scaling back hours. Shatzel said the restaurant mastered takeout during the initial lockdown.
"People will be ordering quite a bit of takeout starting tomorrow," he said. "We'll do a lot of fish frys, chicken wings, we're going to start changing our menu up, to gear up for more comfort food takeout items."
Customers who were grabbing their last indoor bite, said they will be turning to takeout in the coming days to continue supporting local businesses.
“We decided last night we were gonna go out today to support some locals," said Joelle France.
