Essential Wichita businesses struggle, maintain and even thrive through pandemic

There seem to be as many stories about how businesses are doing during the COVID-19 outbreak as there are essential businesses — and that’s a lot.

Take Jess Hancock, who owns three businesses.

“Two of them are absolutely thriving during this time,” he said.

That’s his Wichita Gun Club and Flint Hills Distributing, which sells night crawlers — the worms that are popular bait with people who fish — to Walmart.

“We can barely keep up with our demand.”

But their sporting clays business “has really taken a hit.”

For most businesses, it seems to come down to demand — the supplies people need and the products they want to pass the time.

Jeff Ralls, who also owns three businesses, was certain his Evergreen Recycle wood waste and composting facility would suffer.

“But actually, it’s been pretty busy there,” he said.

He said it’s because people stuck at home are doing yard work and need mulch.

However, some businesses that cater to people doing home projects still are struggling.

“It’s slower than normal,” said Kelly Brinkley, floor manager at the Ace Hardware near Harry and Woodlawn. “We’ve easily dropped a third.”

He said when shoppers come in, they come in for one or two specific items and then leave.

“They don’t do a lot of browsing.”

Mike Davis said his 1-800-JUNKPRO is getting so many calls for Dumpster rentals that he’s giving customers a discount if they keep them only three days instead of the typical seven-day rental.

“A lot of people are cleaning a lot of things right now, so we’ve seen a pretty big spike.”

A 38% spike to be exact. Davis said he checks daily.

“This whole thing is so fluid. Things change daily, but it’s not slowing down at all.”

Sugar Shak Daylight Donuts owner Diane Grubbs said her business is down, but “not considerably, which I’m really shocked.”

“My business is a comfort food. We are kind of everyone’s normal or structure.”

Grubbs said she’s been floored at the kindness of customers.

“I love my people. They need their doughnuts, so I’m going to be here for them.”

A catch-22

Not every business has seen sales fluctuate up or down. Some sales have simply stopped.

“We’ve had nothing all week,” said Ken Smith of Steve’s Jams & Jellies.

The business is in Towne West Square. The mall is closed, but Smith can be open because he sells food and has a farmers market on Saturdays.

Shoppers can’t go through the mall entrances but can enter through Smith’s kitchen. It’s on the exterior of the mall’s north entrance.

“It’s kind of hard to find.”

Smith said Towne West won’t let him hang a sign on his back door.

“I’m kind of in a catch-22,” he said.

“And Towne West has said rent is due when it’s due. How am I supposed to make money when they’re closed?”

He’s started offering curbside pick ups and free delivery to help spur sales.

Smith is part of the farmers market at 21st and Ridge Road, which he said will still kick off its season April 11. He said he hopes to sell some of his products then.

“God I hope so, but there’s a lot of people scared right now with panic.”

Laundry Station owner Sharon Brinks also has added free pick up and delivery for laundry and dry cleaning through Laundry Express. She happened to already be working on the new business when the coronavirus hit.

“The timing just fit,” she said.

Self service at the laundromat remains steady, but drop-off laundry is down, Brinks said.

“I think we’re going to be OK. Laundry tends to be fairly recession proof.”

Within a lot of businesses, certain parts are down while others are up.

For another one of Ralls’ businesses, Evergreen Pallet, some customers are needing his products more — such as the meat-packing plants that normally pick up once Lent is over — and others don’t need them as much.

“The balance between the two has kind of made it stay somewhat normal levels,” he said.

Bicycle Pedaler owner Ruth Holliday said her “sales are down definitely, but what we’re busy with is service.”

“So many people have time on their hands, and they want to go riding.”

Walk-in business is off by 30 or 40%, she said.

However, Holliday said, “At this time of the year, it’s so dependent on weather.”

Weather affects Milton Wolf’s Tommy’s Express Car Wash as well.

“It’s just rained so much,” he said. “Really, probably the bigger variable for us right now is the weather.”

Along with the free washes Tommy’s is giving to medical workers, police, first responders, public officials and food deliverers — 700 so far — Wolf said, “We’re just staying really pretty steady.”

The week that was

The week that toilet paper started disappearing off the shelves of almost every store that carries it, Hancock remembers being at his Wichita Gun Club wondering if he should order more ammunition to stock.

He saw that his distributor had 400,000 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition available. Hancock decided to hold off ordering.

The next morning, “There wasn’t a bullet left for me to buy.”

Though he’s restocking regularly, Hancock said it’s hard to keep merchandise around. Some people are ordering ahead for when shipments come in.

“If you walk in my store, it looks like I’m having a going-out-of-business sale.”

When frenzied buying first began — there was a line outside his store and other gun shops around Wichita — that included a lot of first-time guy buyers.

“People want to have items to protect and defend themselves,” Hancock said. He said some people are thinking, “This is going to get crazy, and people are going to start looting my house if they can’t get things at the stores.”

There was panicked buying at liquor stores early on after the virus hit because shoppers were worried the stores would be forced to close, but they were deemed essential.

So are garden centers, where there has been a run on vegetables and seeds.

Lots of people also are turning to SBA loans for help, which means a lot of paperwork for banks.

Citizens Bank of Kansas chairman Jane Deterding said it was overwhelming studying payroll protection plan loans and waiting on directives from the SBA, but she’s not overly worried about business. That’s even though her bank, like most others right now, is offering loan deferment programs.

“In the short term, there’s some loss of revenue. But in the long term, it’ll be fine.”

Deterding said most customers have made the switch to drive-through banking. For those who have to come into the bank’s 10 branches, she said numerous precautions are in place.

“Our employees are just rock stars,” Deterding said.

Jobless claims in Kansas jumped from 23,563 to 54,739 in the last full week in March, but no one at Citizens Bank was among them, Deterding said.

“They’re all on the payroll.”

‘The new normal’

These days, a lot of business owners are taking things day by day.

Scholfield Honda’s Roger Scholfield is, too, but he’s also trying to think ahead.

It’s why he’s splitting management and staff into two shifts.

“If one key person gets sick,” he said, “we don’t want us both to be out.”

His service department is seeing more people than his sales department these days. Still, the service side is down about 20%, and Scholfield guesses sales are down 40 to 50%.

“These next 45 to 60 days are going to be challenging.”

Scholfield is offering home pick up and delivery for service and sales.

Sales consultants are doing virtual visits with customers through Zoom.

One customer did everything from home, but Scholfield said, “They still wanted to come in and do the paperwork here.”

Like so many others, Scholfield said he is looking at how the stimulus plan might help and what the economy may do in the long run.

He said he’s wondering how the coronavirus and its economic impact will change “not only the volume of business we’re doing, but how we do business.”

“We’re all trying to figure out in our race to get back to normal, what is the new normal going to be?”