Cape Chamber members reflect on pandemic's local impact

Looking as if they were seeing old friends for the first time in months -- because they were -- members of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce gathered last week for their first "in-person" First Friday Coffee since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of the chamber members -- all wearing face masks and observing "social distancing" -- compared notes about the pandemic's economic impact.

Some of them shared their thoughts with the Southeast Missourian about how COVID-19 has affected their businesses and what changes they think it will bring in the future.

Flooring

"The only part of our business that's down right now is the landlord and property management business, which has always been our wheelhouse, the main target of our business for years," said Rob Stephens, owner of Heartland Custom Flooring.

Stephens explained there hasn't been a great deal of rental property turnover during the pandemic, so carpets, tile and hardwood flooring in apartments and rental homes haven't had to be replaced.

"That part of the business has almost stopped because people aren't being evicted, so those properties aren't turning over," he said. "But everything else is up because people have the money, they've got the time, they didn't go on vacation, so that's been tremendous for our business."

Travel

Asked how things have been in the travel business, Susan Berghoff of 1st Class Travel told the Missourian "they've been better," but the travel industry is adapting.

"It's tough, but things will bounce back at some point," she said.

"There have been lots of challenges, but people are still going places," she said. "We've done lots of beach condos and beach houses in Florida and Alabama and in places like Gatlinburg, Tennessee. People feel comfortable going there."

Although the cruise industry is idle through October and travel to Europe has been curtailed by the European Union's travel restrictions, Berghoff said other destinations such as Mexico and Jamaica are "coming back," adding that "2021 looks really good right now."

The great outdoors

The Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center has been closed to the public for most of the year because of the pandemic.

"We've been closed since mid-March," according to center manager Sara Turner. After setting and canceling several reopening dates, the center finally reopened last week.

"We had 51 people come through the exhibits the first day," she reported. "Masks were required for everybody over 9, and nobody had any problems with wearing them."

During the pandemic, Turner said she saw "an uptick in people hiking our trail, fishing in the kids' fishing pond and hiking conservation areas" throughout the region.

"We've been doing online programs since June and will continue to do virtual programs before we slowly introduce in-person programs that can be done outside, like hiking, canoeing and kayaking, but they'll still be very limited on the number of people that can participate," Turner said.

Even guided hiking programs will be restricted. "We could take more people, but if they're going to be 6 feet apart, we can only talk so loud," she said.

Employee staffing

When it comes to matching employees with employers, Talent Force customer service manager MaKenya Owens told the Missourian the pandemic has resulted in a "supply and demand" issue.

"We're just not seeing a lot of people looking for work," she said. "Not at all."

The Talent Force office in Cape Girardeau works with companies as far south as Sikeston and as far north as Perryville, many of which want to hire workers.

"We have a lot of openings," Owens said, and attributed the lack of job seekers to the federal government's $600-a-week supplemental unemployment payments, which, for some people, have made it more attractive to remain unemployed than to resume work.

"Hopefully, now that (those payments) are coming to a close, there will be more people out in the workforce trying to find jobs or to go back to their jobs, so we're hoping it will pick up very, very soon," she said.

Pest control

Chris Horrell at Bug Zero said his pest control business has benefited from the pandemic.

"A lot of people are working from home, so we're getting a lot more activity on the residential side," he said. "And a lot of our services are outside only, which has been a benefit to us for sure."

During the summer months, Horrell said Bug Zero has been focusing a lot on mosquitoes and other outdoor pests "because people have been 'vacationing' at home this summer and are outside more on their decks and around their pools."

Tourism

When asked whether local tourism was rebounding, Brenda Newbern replied, "Oh, heck yeah!"

Newbern is the executive director of Visit Cape, the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Tourism is doing well and the hotels in our area are holding very firm and strong," she said, and attributed much of the visitor activity to sports tournaments throughout the area, including the Cape Girardeau SportsPlex.

"We are fortunate and blessed to have tournaments every weekend starting in June.

Local hotels over the weekend were "booked solid," Newbern said, thanks to an 80-team basketball tournament and a large family reunion.

While tournaments such as the one over the weekend draw hundreds of people to Cape Girardeau, Newbern said she has observed overwhelming compliance with face mask requirements and "social-distancing" guidelines among spectators and participants -- when they're not on the court.

"I've attended them to see how we're doing with masks and everything," she said. "They're taking temperatures, they're sanitizing, everyone has to wear a mask when they're not playing and, of course, spectators have to wear them all the time. It's been great."

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