Reply to Are you committed to helping restaurants during Trump’s tariff fallout?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]During lockdown, there were restaurants that remained open, held in person meeting, as nd protested. I made a list. I have not returned to any of them. I feel like many restaurant and gym owners were the most vocal in complaining and fed into the lies tromp was spreading. I blame them in part for where we are now. Gyms and restaurants. 
I will seek out businesses owned by the Nepali refugee community instead. [/quote]

THIS.

I used to go to a fitness facility (not a gym but a place with fitness classes) and during Covid they regularly emailed all their regular clients to do things like continue monthly payments even though they were closed and to donate money to a support fund for their employees. I did both because I did like the business and wanted to support them. But later I found out they got a sizable Covid loan from the fed and it was forgiven. I also learned that they got a huge rental discount and basically didn't pay rent from April 2020 until January 2021. I genuinely thought that when that happened, they would offer some kind of compensation to customers who propped them up through their closure in 2020 by continuing to pay monthly fees. I also now question with the donations for their employees were necessary and where that money went -- it turns out they had the funds to make payroll due to their loan and the rent pause, plus apparently half their staff quit and left the area anyway (lots of young staff who likely moved home with parents in other areas). Some of us gave hundreds of dollars because we thought it was going to help people who weren't being paid buy groceries. Instead I now believe the money was spent on staff social events that violated the city's social distancing regulations, as I've since learned there was a lot of that in the summer of 2020.

I felt completely swindled. Cancelled my membership and have never gone back. They've since moved locations and changed ownership but it's still the same people involved (new owners all were in management during Covid) so I still won't return. During this time that I was giving them a membership fee despite them being closed and supporting their staff, I had my own hours cut from full time to 30 hours and had a 2 year old at home because our daycare closed completely and it took us months to find another placement. It was a really, really hard time for my family. No one paid for my groceries or made any effort to support me. I didn't qualify for a Covid loan and no one gave me a break on my mortgage or rent.

I think a lot of small businesses used Covid as an excuse to guilt trip and wheedle funds out of their customers and I have so much less trust now. I will happily go to Starbucks or a chain restaurant where at least I know what the terms of our arrangement are -- I give them money and they give me goods and services, and no one is pretending they are actually a charity or that I owe them something special because they are a service business and I work in an office.

I hate Trump but I am not falling for this again. No. Find a way to make your business work and use your industry associations/lobbying efforts to advocate for yourself to government. I'm just a customer and I don't actually owe you anything, not even my business. You have to earn it.[/quote]

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