Things have changed a ton since my last post here on March 1st. We've been open the entire time and from what I heard, the first few days of our stay at home order were slow (I self quarantined/dealt with Mom's death). Things picked up after that, and the last few weeks have been some of the best sales weeks our store has had.
A lot of food places are closing early, so we have been extra busy after midnight. We hired 2 drivers (wow, only took an f'ing pandemic to get some help) and brought back some former employees on a temp basis while they are laid off from their current job.
Cops aren't patrolling for traffic like normal and everyone knows it. Dayton drivers **** under normal circumstances and it's much worse now. I don't see as many drunk drivers, but a lot of people think they are the only one driving and I have seen multiple cars blow through red lights and stop signs like they are driving on a highway, not even slowing down. On side streets, I've almost been hit several times by people stopping in the intersection, because they try to blow the stop sign. My middle finger has had plenty of exercise lately.
Most of our customers are nice and tips are better than before even with shittier service, because they realize what's going on. We've had a few rotten apples in the bunch though, and they can ruin an entire night. We have always had a long leash when it comes to customer relations because of the number of drunks we deal with, but our leash is even longer now. So, even though I can get away with hurling a string of expletives at some drunk guy after he tells me to go F myself, it still ticks me off the rest of the night, especially when I had a string of jerk customers in a row.
One of the most frustrating things about this situation is not being able to run errands at 5 am. Our 24/7 grocery stores now close at 11 or midnight and most of the 24/7 gas stations have been closing too. I tried going to the grocery in the daytime but there were just too many people there so I've been eating out way more often.
I'm ready for normalcy again.