'It's a rollercoaster': Ocean City restaurants struggle to hang on during coronavirus
Matthew Prensky
OCEAN CITY, Md. — If you walk into Buxy's Salty Dog Saloon or Dry Dock 28 on Coastal Highway in Ocean City you'll see walls covered in decades of hand-collected sports memorabilia.
The businesses' owner, Douglas "Buxy" Buxbaum has collected sports memorabilia since he was a kid. He never thought it would turn out to be a great way to decorate his restaurants. It kind of just worked out that way.
Now, Buxbaum uses his memorabilia to keep him busy during the day.
"You come in, you hang a couple pictures, you change some light fixtures," Buxbaum said. "You do a lot of things you've been meaning to get to in 21 years."
For more than two decades, Buxbaum has catered to Ocean City sports fans.
Most days Buxbaum is hard at work serving beer and cheesesteaks to patrons while their eyes are glued to the dozens of flat screen TVs around the restaurants.
With local restrictions on hotels or rental properties renting to tourists and state bans on dine-in eating, Buxbaum's business has slowed down.
These days Buxbaum applies for state and federal economic relief, does some busy work around his restaurants and tries to stay optimistic that business will return when the COVID-19 threat passes.
"A month ago, I was thinking this was going to be the very best season in Ocean City for many years," Buxbaum said. "There was not a thought that would have even crossed my mind that this could have possibly happened and now here we are."
Business has declined almost 90% in one month
A month ago, Maryland reported its first cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
On March 5, Maryland had three cases. A a month later, Gov. Larry Hogan told the public that the state had more than 2,700 cases.
Worrying are also signs from national hospitality groups that say the pain of COVID-19 isn't over yet, and may only get worse for businesses like Buxbaums, a message Hogan is echoing.
Since the beginning of March, Buxbaum's business has completely changed.
First March Madness and the Ocean City St. Patrick's Day Parade were canceled to help with social distancing. Then restaurants statewide were ordered to close, or only provide carryout service.
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Buxbaum's business is now only doing about 10-15% of the what it normally does, he said.
"The loss is gonna be in the hundreds of thousands and that's just cause we're a sports bar," Buxbaum said.
For his business at least, Buxbaum said there's no way to make that money back. While that won't hurt in the short term, it's the long-term consequence that keeps him up at night.
"There are days. I'm not gonna lie these last few weeks have been a rollercoaster," Buxbaum said. "I go five days trying to stay optimistic not just for your family, customers and your staff, but then you do lay awake at night and say, 'Where is this going?' "
With years of being in business under his belt, Buxbaum's restaurants are in a better position to handle the economic pain of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it doesn't mean he's immune.
Buxbaum keeps his restaurant open to make some money and keep some employees working. The rest have had to apply for unemployment, he said.
Thousands of small businesses across Maryland look for relief
Buxbaum's story isn't unique.
Tens of thousands of Maryland businesses have been hit hard by COVID-19. Many, especially in Ocean City, were just like the Salty Dog Saloon; looking for a strong spring to bring in some much needed cash flow.
The first week after Maryland rolled out its $175 million economic relief package, thousands of businesses have looked to the state for help.
Across state more than 1,500 businesses have applied to the Maryland COVID-19 Layoff Aversion Fund to receive up to $50,000 from the Maryland Department of Labor to try and keep their staffs' employed, Hogan said in a March 30 press conference.
In total between March 23 and 30, the state has handed out $8.8 million, $1.8 million more than originally planned, to more than 400 small businesses to help them avert layoffs, Hogan said.
Maryland also established a $50 million Maryland Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Fund and a $75 million Maryland Small Business COVID-19 Relief Loan Fund to help give business a much-needed cash infusion.
Since the programs' launch, Maryland Department of Commerce had received more than 5,300 applications to the relief loan fund and more than 11,000 applications to the grant fund, Hogan said as of March 30.
These funds are in addition to the $2.3 billion in economic relief coming to Maryland from the federal government through the CARES Act, passed by Congress in March.
Coronavirus impact:Ocean City businesses aren't alone. OC's bottom line takes hit from COVID-19 too
Unemployment, too, has grown in Maryland because of COVID-19.
From March 17-28, 126,564 people filed for unemployment with the Maryland Department of Labor. Of that, 2,386 filings have come from Worcester County.
Figures from the National Restaurant Association say as of April 4, more than 3 million restaurant workers nationally have been laid off since March 1.
The association also indicated conditions in the industry could worsen in April saying, "50% of restaurant operators anticipate having to lay off more people in April."
Will the restaurant industry rebound?
Groups such as STR, a leading analytical company for the hospitality industry, also says the coming months could be particularly bad for restaurants, based on consumer spending research its completed.
STR found that a growing number of people say they're less likely to eat out or visit bars in the coming 12 months.
From March 1-15, 27% of respondents said they're less likely to spend money at bars in the coming 12 months, according to STR. That percentage grew to 41 in the second half of the month.
The same was true for eating out. Thirteen percent of respondents between March 1-15 said they'd likely spend less at restaurants, but that figure more than doubled in the second half of March to 30%.
"The developing severity of the COVID-19 pandemic during the second half of March had a profound effect on intent to spend," according to STR's blog post.
The governor alluded to the growing economic crisis in his April 3 remarks.
"As we continue to fight this unprecedented worldwide pandemic, our first priority is saving the lives of thousands of Marylanders but, at the same time, we're also facing another huge battle against catastrophic economic collapse," Hogan said.
Buxbaum remains hopeful. Once the COVID-19 lessons, he thinks the cabin fever developed now because of social distancing will make people want to spend more at restaurants.
Buxbaum is also basing that belief on the community support he's been getting, even at a time when people have so much else to worry about.
Ocean City may seem like a big community, but really it's a small, tight-knit group, he said.
That good faith and community support is keeping Buxbaum optimistic.
"For some reason I just got some faith in the big guy up above that he's leading us right down the road so we'll figure it out. It's bigger than me," Buxbaum said.
Matthew Prensky is the Ocean City News Reporter for Delmarva Now. His work focuses on business, government and community issues in Ocean City and Worcester County. He can be reached at mprensky@delmarvanow.com or on Twitter at @matthewprensky.
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