One year after the first reported case of COVID-19 in Rabun County, many local businesses that were hit hard by the disease are seeing big increases in customers and sales.
While the disease has claimed the lives of 39 Rabun County residents so far, reported cases continue to decline as more residents receive immunizations.
As of Tuesday, 4,588 Rabun County residents (28 percent) had received at least one dose of vaccine, with another 3,270 (20 percent) being fully vaccinated.
Only 3 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported locally so far in April.
The percent of COVID-19 tests returning positive results has dropped to 5.8 percent as of Tuesday, down from a high of nearly 60 percent in December
Now, a year after the pandemic began, business appears to be booming in Rabun County, according to local business owners.
“It’s been great. They’ve gone up,” said Sam Dinos, owner of Butler Galleries, about sales and foot-traffic in the store.
“I think there are just a lot of people visiting us locally as opposed to just going away,” Dinos said.
Bill Bennett, co-owner of Outdoor 76, said that they have seen an uptick in business also since restaurants and stores began opening up.
“They’ve been really good,” Bennett said about sales.
Josh Brown from Wander North Georgia said that he is thankful and blessed that his business has managed to function during the pandemic.
“We’ve been very fortunate and lucky,” Brown said. “We’ve been a little busier than years past.”
He said they were closed for 72 days when the pandemic first started but that they have seen an increase in their sales and foot traffic.
Brown said that Wander North Georgia still requires customers to wear masks.
“We’ve required that since day one,” Brown said. He said that most customers are compliant with the requirement, but some customers have been irate about having to wear the masks because they believe that the pandemic is over, Brown said.
It’s been a pretty disheartening, frustrating and sad thing,” Brown said. He said they plan to open up Admiral Axe, their business located under them, in May or June. He said that they closed the facility when COVID first began.
Universal Joint’s business is also doing well despite the pandemic, according to Becky Burrell, bar manager at Universal Joint.
“Definitely up,” Burrell said about the restaurant’s sales. She said that it’s likely because so many people are wanting to get out of quarantine because they are ready for the pandemic to end.
Patti Barnett and Gabriel Lopez at Blue Ridge Toys said that business has been busy and didn’t go down tremendously during the pandemic.
“We never slowed down really. We stayed busy all summer. We’ve been really lucky,” Barnett said.
She said that it’s partly because they created a website so that customers can order items online as well.
Although sales have been consistent or gone up in many restaurants, some business owners said that they are having trouble maintaining adequate staffing to meet the demand.
“The biggest impact is staffing,” said Bonnie Edmonds, owner of Clayton Cafe, about the biggest effect the pandemic has had on her business. “Nobody wants to work.”
She said the pandemic also slowed down food production and there are certain products she just can’t get.
She said specifically that she’s had a difficult time finding items like pork.
In addition, the price of food has gone up significantly, Edmonds said.
“There’s a lot of my local regulars who have not come out,” Edmonds said. She said that since the pandemic began, it has typically been tourists who have dined at the restaurant.
Edmonds said that due to the lack of staffing, she had to change some of the business operating days.
“I closed on Wednesday in order to be able to open Friday and Saturday for breakfast,” Edmonds said.
She said overall that she’s proud of her staff for sticking through and optimistic about business growing even more in the future despite the seemingly never-ending pandemic.
‘I’m holding my own. I’m happy,” Edmonds said. “My bills are paid, my staff are taken care of. I’m blessed about that.”