Small Business In Somerville Hit Hard By Coronavirus
SOMERVILLE (CBS) - The coronavirus crisis is hammering small businesses across the country, like a T-shirt maker in Somerville we recently met. And that means layoffs and maybe worse as owners try to hang on.
"No one is ordering. There are no orders coming in. It has just stopped," said Peter Rinnig, the owner of QRST's in Somerville.
He's a worried guy, especially since he's had to cut his already small staff. "I laid off five full-time employees and one part-0time person," he said.
Rinnig has owned the shop for 19 years, printing and embroidering T shirts for businesses, special events and colleges. "We do a lot of fraternities and clubs and events for the schools themselves, and those have all gone away," he said. That means he's hanging on by a thread, and couldn't keep his employees on the job.
"Basically, I said, I want you folks back as soon as possible. We're going to go with a skeleton crew and keep the doors open, and as soon as the orders start filling back in, you get called back. Hopefully." That is, if he can keep the doors open. "I can pay my bills at the moment, but if this lingers past two or three months, I could literally shut my door. And absolute worst case scenario, declare bankruptcy."
Rinnig has applied to the state for financial help after first having had problems even accessing the website, but he thinks the need is too great for the state to handle it. He said the federal government needs to step in to save small businesses.