The popular specialty grocery store that launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to pay the rent is staying afloat despite a difficult COVID-19 economy.
“We got to about 86%, which was nice, and we paid our rent which helped our landlords a lot,” said James Beck, owner of iBurn, about the fundraiser. “They're an elderly couple and they were struggling with being on a fixed income other than the rent they get from this building. They were extremely grateful that we were able to pay some rent because they had given us a deferral throughout the entire lockdown period.”
Beck is among the business owners feeling the impact of an overall depression in the Texas economy, the lowest levels since 2009, despite some improvements since the beginning of the pandemic, Texas Business Daily previously reported.
“Between all the amazing, generous people who donated and all of our incredible customers that came in and bought things, we were able to kind of get things going in the right direction,” Beck told Texas Business Daily. “Unfortunately, once all that excitement and momentum faded, we were hoping we would at least see an uptick a little, and it's still not there. Now we're just being optimistic that we might see a nice rebound during the holidays.”
There have been 777,556 coronavirus cases cited statewide and 16,230 fatalities as of Oct. 8, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“Our primary focus, even with the GoFundMe campaign, has been on making sure that our employees can continue working and that we didn't have to furlough anybody,” Beck said. “We didn't want to have to cut any hours. We really wanted to focus on that more than anything and we've been able to, so far.”
The Lone Star Standard reported Sept. 21 that Gov. Greg Abbott allowed retail stores to open to 75% occupancy. Under the new orders, occupancy levels were increased for restaurants, retail stores, office buildings, manufacturing facilities, gyms, exercise facilities and classes, museums and libraries.
“We're an essential business because we’re considered a grocery store so because of the fact that we're classified as an essential business, we can follow the same guidelines as big box grocery stores when it comes to our occupancy,” Beck said. “We do have a limit but we haven't had to worry about exceeding that limit yet.”
As previously reported, iBurn is adjacent to a bar, which creates crossover business.
Regarding Abbott’s COVID-19 policies, Beck said, “He's doing a lot to demonize bars and place the blame on them more so than any other businesses that are operating to where they've got greater restrictions. Most of the bars now are actually having to get food permits and start serving food to the point where they can be considered a restaurant just so that they can start doing business again. I feel that's unfair. If you're going to target the service industry, then they should target it industry-wide not just single out one portion of the service industry.”