Contra Costa County personal service businesses, including hair salons and tattoo parlors, are rushing to meet customer demand ahead of the expected early shutdown that officials announced recently.
Rushing to meet demand
At Salon Hanover, Gina DeLuca, a hairstylist, expressed her surprise after the announcement was made on Friday. Authorities decided to place the region under lockdown protocols earlier than what state officials’ new stay-at-home order enforced.
DeLuca noted how their salon opened early at 6:00 a.m. to accommodate more customers for the day and plan to do the same on Sunday. The hair salon is trying to serve as many clients as possible before being forced into temporary closure.
The hairstylist added how the salon spent a lot of its already declining funds to equip plexiglass and upgrades to the building.
One customer, Lena Takahashi, was able to set an appointment with the salon on Saturday. She detailed how difficult the coronavirus pandemic has made it for her to be served at the salon. Takahashi expressed her sympathy with the salon’s employees, who would have no income source during the holidays.
Takahashi said residents should do something to curb the spread of the coronavirus in order to help others. She said that if staying at home would help everyone else, no one should complain about it too much.
Customers piling up
The general manager of Zebra Tattoo and Piercing, Sean Delfani, said the establishment had extended its operating hours due to the increased demand during the holiday. He said, “The month of December, that’s what makes our year.”
Delfani posted on social media that the tattoo and piercing operations of the establishments would be closed on Sunday. Customers took advantage of the closure to flood in during Saturday to be accommodated, ABC7 News reported.
The general manager noted that they opened at 12:00 noon and already saw a line of customers waiting at 10:30 that reached down the block. Delfani said they would be able to continue providing retail service but that piercings or tattoos would be unavailable by Sunday at 10:00 p.m.
Delfani said he had no choice but to place 40 of his employees back into unemployment. He said, “The first shutdown was a massive hit to us as a team. It’s going to be scary seeing round two of this again.”
