APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – For the last 11 months, UW-Oshkosh has been surveying thousands of Wisconsin businesses to help monitor the impact of COVID-19.
“Now, we’re hurting a little bit, we’re looking for more business,” said Darby Schumacher, general manager at Mr. Brews Taphouse in Appleton.
Schumacher tells FOX 11 they’ve had their share of ups and downs during the pandemic.
“Overall we are hanging in there, every week seems to keep getting a little bit better as people feel a little bit extra safe. And get better at regular life pretty soon.”
For months, the restaurant has taken part in UWO’s business survey.
“In the January survey the 331 businesses that responded reported inventory losses of about 1.2 million dollars in December,” said Jeff Sachse, the director of UW Oshkosh’s Center for Customized Research and Services.
Sachse tells FOX 11 that loss is decreasing and showing hope since reports early in the pandemic.
“In June we were looking at about 36% of businesses that said they could survive more than 10 months and we’re now up to about 48%.”
Sachse says the numbers are thanks to community support during the holidays.
“Those businesses in those communities that had those programs reported on averaged a 10-20% increase in sales.”
Schumacher says, “We did whatever the community of Appleton had planned..oh, definitely, everything helps a little bit in some capacity.”
For some businesses, Sachse says planning ahead in the fall helped,
“What the school year was going to look like for their employees and their employees children, coupled with the announcement and news on vaccine development that were the two really high points that led to an increased confidence.”
Sachse says physiologically, people will feel like things are back to normal.. but it will take about 3-5 years for the economy to catch up.
“Throughout the summer and this fall, is the defining moment of what this pandemic has brought is businesses that have survived over the 18 months… say probably more businesses than we would have expected did survive.”
Get more data and results from the surveys HERE.
