Small Businesses in a Tourist Town are Still Facing the Effects of COVID-19, One Year Later
Celebration, Fla. — In a town that thrives off of tourism, small businesses are continuing to experience economic hardship amidst COVID-19, but it is much more than just their businesses at stake.
On March 15, 2020, Walt Disney World close their doors until further notice. Located seven miles outside Disney World, is a town called Celebration where the majority of income for the small businesses rely heavily on Disney tourism. With the closing of Disney, Celebration businesses were instantly and negatively impacted, and they are still feeling the effects of COVID-19 today.
Jo Lella, owner of Kilwins Ice Cream and Chocolates Shop in Celebration had never experienced anything like this in the 15 years she’s owned the store. Following the closing of Disney, Kilwins remained busier than usual for several days after due to the overwhelming number of tourists still waiting to get flights home. However, this did not last long.
Ten days after Disney World closed, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a mandatory stay-at-home order effective until April 9, 2020. This is when Lella and other small business owners started to realize there was more to COVID-19 than just the virus.
One of the Celebration founding family members, Don M. stated “Once all the tourists got flights home, Celebration was a ghost town. I haven’t seen it that quiet since when the town first opened back in 1996.”
Once stay at home orders were set in place, Lella had to make the difficult decision to let 15 out of her 16 employees go for the time being. Store manager Kevin L. was the one employee who stayed to help Lella.
Although Kilwins never shut down completely, “we were forced to reduce our hours significantly which lead to a drop in our sales by 95% in April,” explained Lella. “It didn’t do much but luckily we made profit by offering curbside service.”
Store Manager Kevin L. added, “I’ll never forget, one day in April we made $98.00 total, and that was the most we had made in several days.”
Prior to COVID-19, small business owners along with Celebration Town Hall, who oversees the entire town and the businesses, would get together every few months to discuss changes, upcoming events, and address any questions. However, when COVID-19 started directly impacting the town, Celebration Town Hall fell silent.
Lella claimed that the neglect from Celebration Town Hall has brought all the small business owners in town closer together. “We have a text group chat where we talk in almost daily. We check in on each other with encouraging words, we send each other ideas, and grant and loan options we come across. We all have each other’s backs and we are all working together,” said Lella.
Celebration Town Hall has still not reached out to any of the businesses, nor offer them aid since the beginning of COVID-19, in March 2020. Instead, all overhead expenses were kept at the same price, monthly rent was increased, and insurance went up significantly in cost due to the fact there are more liabilities. This gave Lella and other small business owners no choice but to reduce their pay to minimum hourly wage.
With this cut in her salary, COVID-19 started to directly and adversely impact Lella’s personal life. Lella has four kids, and a husband. Her husband worked for Disney for over 15 years but was immediately furloughed when Disney closed their doors back in March 2020. When he lost his job, the family also lost more than half of their income. Since then, Lella has been working 17-hour days, seven days a week. She states that she has never worked harder as she has had to rework how the entire store operates on a daily basis along with constantly implementing new ideas.
She stated “Mental health wise this has been draining. I’m always wondering if I am doing enough or doing the right thing and there is that constant worry if we are going to make it each month.” She added, “I do stay blessed and grateful for the small things and remind myself that it could be worse.”
Amongst the obstacles Lella is faced with, she is determined to keep overcoming all of the challenges placed in her path, as their livelihood is as risk. She claimed, “I think that’s one aspect people don’t realize. To them it might just be an Ice Cream store, but to me and my family, it’s our whole life, it’s our everything.”
The Disney Parks reopened on July 11, 2020 to the general public. However, with capacity restrictions put into place, the businesses in Celebration did not feel an immediate sense of relief, nor did they see a major difference.
“Until everything is back to normal and COVID-19 is completely gone, I don’t think we are going to see major influxes of sales,” claimed Lella. She added that her store is still at a quarter of where they were at compared to last year. She stated, “Until then, we’ll just take it month by month and hope for the best.”
