SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – The coronavirus is taking a financial toll on many sectors of Bay Area business.
Restaurants, which already operate on razor thin margins, are one of the hardest hit industries.
Some volunteers in the tech sector have launched websites to try and help ease the strain.
“So many people lost their jobs, we have trimmed 25% of our workforce already,” Andrew Johnstone said.
Andrew Johnstone is the owner of the Little Chihuahua restaurants.
Of his five spots, he’s had to close his SFO and Mission locations as the coronavirus swept through the city.
He’s down to take out and delivery from the three still open.
“And it’s day by day, if we don’t see business tomorrow we’re gonna have to do more and there’s other companies that just have had to let everybody go it’s devastating,”Johnstone said.
It’s small business owners, like Johnstone, that several tech entrepreneurs are trying to help by launching websites like saveourfaves.org.
It was created by one of the founders of Instagram to help the community come together to help small businesses keep from closing by buying gift cards.
“Everyone should have a chance to save their business during this tough time,” Shala Burroughs said.
Shala Burroughs is with the website helpmainstreet.com with a similar premise.
This one goes beyond the Bay Area, including New York and Boulder, Colorado.
It launched on Wednesday and is adding more cities by the day.
If you don’t see your local favorite spot they can be added.
“We’re just trying to get money into the small and medium businesses to help them survive this,” Burroughs said.
“If we can stay afloat and hopefully come out of this than great,” Johnstone said.
The owner of the Little Chihuahua appreciates the support they’ve already gotten from their fans and what these websites might provide.
They are limping along for now, he just hopes people heed the warnings so things don’t go from bad to even worse.
“What scares me is that people are not staying home enough and eventually we just get lost down then we’re not in business nobody’s business and that’s a bigger problem,” Johnstone said.
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