COVID Pandemic: South Bay Residents Squeeze In Last-Minute Shopping Before Lockdown
SAN JOSE (KPIX) -- For shoppers and business owners, the latest shelter-in-place order felt like deja vu: people rushing to finish last-minute shopping and get services done.
Nail and hair salons saw a surge of customers this weekend in Santa Clara County. Many salons that would normally be closed Sundays rescheduled next week's appointments to squeeze them in on the last day of operation in 2020.
"A lot of people are like 'oh my gosh, what are we going to do?' We did get a surge of texts, people calling in last minute -- just yesterday, we were quite busy," said hair stylist, Lan Nguyen.
Most items were in stock at the local grocery stores we visited in San Jose. The only exception was toilet paper.
"I was at Costco earlier today and they already have a sign out that they're out of some toilet paper, paper towels," said San Jose resident Christie Idehara.
Idehara was finishing up her shopping Sunday afternoon to get ready to shelter in place with her family.
"I just figured it's better to do now versus trying to go last minute to get any of the essential items," Idehara said.
Many downtown restaurants were expecting a busy Sunday evening.
"I was just telling my staff it's like a last chance gas station. You've got to get your fill-up now, otherwise there's not another stop on the highway for a long time," said Eric Nielsen, who runs Fifty Five South and another restaurant in downtown San Jose. "I hope people come out and I hope they get to enjoy and just have some good food -- have somebody serve you and take care of you and,more importantly, have somebody else do the dishes for you, one last time, until next year!"
Nielsen said it's tough to again lay off many of his workers he considers family members.
"I'm really, really stressed out and worry for my staff," Nielsen said. "It's during the holidays and how are they going to put food on the table for their kids?"
Just as he did in March, Nielsen plans to distribute extra groceries from his two restaurants to his laid-off workers to help them out. He will only hang on to a minimum number of workers since take-out orders only make up roughly five percent of his business.
"They're saying that this is going to be a 30-day shut down. I don't believe that. That's what they said last time and it was three and a half months," Nielsen said.
The four Bay Area counties not adopting the stay-at-home rules may see a small bump in business. Some people said they'll just go to San Mateo County to get their hair done and do outdoor dining.
