TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Small businesses are trying to keep their employees and bills paid and many have seen sales drop because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Room to Room Furniture normally has a staff of about 30 employees. Now only about five people work a day.
Lisa Hawkins, the president of Room to Room, talked with WTVA about how business is going.
"We have just a skeleton crew," she said.
The store is still open and taking orders over the phone or scheduling appointments with customers. She said business has slowed down tremendously
With the help of Renasant Bank, Hawkins was able to apply for a small business loan to help with expenses and payroll.
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"The rules and everything has changed through this process; it has been a very frustrating and anxiety-providing process," she said.
Hawkins has completed the loan application and is now waiting for approval
Tupelo Mayor Jason Shelton described the economy right now as disastrous. He is putting an economic recovery comity together to look at plans for long-term solutions to fix Tupelo's economy.
"The mayor is gonna direct us in what we can do," Hawkins said. "It's gonna be a process. It's not gonna be turning on a light switch."
She said Room to Room is going to stick it out and will bounce back. She plans to open the doors and be back to business as usual as soon as she can.
