Small businesses squeezed by stay-at-home orders

Stay-at-home orders have put a strain on many small business that were already struggling to stay afloat.

Posted 1:21 a.m. Apr 3, 2020 — Updated 1:21 a.m. Apr 3, 2020

Gilbert Baez

, WRAL Fayetteville reporter

HOPE MILLS, N.C. — Stay-at-home orders have put a strain on many small business that were already struggling to stay afloat.

JEB Design in Hope Mills should be printing uniforms for more than 100 Little League baseball and softball teams this week, but orders from schools and area parks departments have dried up amid closure orders designed to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.

"Obviously, there's no after-school programs going on, there's no sports going on, there's no clubs going on. So, all the things we would normally be doing, we're not," JEB manager Nathan Howie said.

Gov. Roy Cooper's statewide stay-at-home order, which took effect Monday, has shut the business down altogether.

"This has caused a disruption in business. A disruption in business is when your customers can't get to you to order the things they would like to have because they're confined," JEB owner Bobby Bass said. "It's just a tragedy of the business, and we're not in this boat by ourselves."

Bass, who started the silk screen and embroidering operation 39 years ago with two partners, had to send his 20 employees home.

"We are prepared," said Brian Chase, who has worked for the company for about six years. "We got food and games, and ... yesterday I bought some rocks to work in the yard."

Bass is continuing to pay everyone on staff and said that he plans to apply for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan on Friday to help with the cost. Despite the temporary shutdown, he said, he's in business for the long haul.

"We're going to be here. We're going to survive," he said.

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