CHESAPEAKE, Va. — As most local students begin the year virtually, businesses that rely on back-to-school sales are hurting.
August is normally the busiest month of the year for The School Box in Chesapeake, but 2020 had other plans.
“Usually this time of year we are wall to wall with people,” said store manager Laura Ellis. “We’re taking one day at a time. You go with the flow, pretty much that’s all you can do.”
COVID-19 has changed the business model for store owners and managers like Laura Ellis, starting all the way back in March.
“Merchandise,” Ellis explained. “When the country stopped, they had to stop too. So there was no producing new merchandise, or any merchandise, so it’s been a slow road getting stuff back in to help all the teachers and parents now.”
Ellis said customers, including parents and teachers, are startling to trickle back into the store as the new year looms.
Madeline Day brought her grandson into The School Box to shop for his first semester of Kindergarten.
“I just retired from Virginia Beach schools, so now we’re getting ready for kindergarten and setting up part of his bedroom as a classroom,” said Madeline Day.
Families, educators and business owners alike are sharing a “learn as you go” mentality this school year.
“I just pray that everybody can be patients with the teachers,” Day said. “This is a new ballgame for everybody. We have to be in this together so we can do the best for this kiddos.”