纽约——在今年夏天的一个短暂时刻，小企业似乎正在从大流行的无情冲击中获得喘息的机会。更多的美国人，其中许多人接种了疫苗，涌入餐馆和商店，而不需要掩盖或社交距离。

但随后，由于达美变异病毒、疫苗授权的推动以及不情愿地回到更多的新冠肺炎预防措施，病例激增。现在，小企业主正试图在保持安全和恢复完全开放之间取得平衡。

导航不断变化冠状病毒现实伴随着许多风险，从经济困难到冒犯顾客，再到让工人紧张。随着冬季的临近，户外活动变得有限，这些挑战可能会加剧。尽管如此，小企业主表示，为了尽可能保证客户和员工的安全，挥鞭抽打是值得的。

“就在几周前，小企业主们还希望恢复正常有助于推动我们的复苏，”杰西卡·约翰逊-科普(Jessica Johnson-Cope)说，她是高盛1万个小企业之声全国领导委员会主席，也是纽约约翰逊安全局(Johnson Security Bureau)旗下一家小企业的老板。

纽约市在8月份为顾客订购了疫苗。对于经营布鲁克林饺子店的弗朗斯马特公司的首席执行官丹·罗来说，这一任务是一个财政负担，也是一个令人头疼的问题。布鲁克林饺子店于5月份首次开业，有6名员工。它的大流行友好格式是无接触和自动化的。

“它被设计成一家员工较少的餐馆，”罗说。玻璃将厨房和员工与点菜的顾客隔开食物来自一个应用。厨房做好食物后，会放置一个自动式的窗户，这样工人就不会接触到顾客。

“我们设计了这个伟大的低劳动力餐厅，政府让我们倒退，”他说。

罗不得不雇用另一名员工在门口检查疫苗卡，增加了他的开销。他的抱怨是，像全食超市这样的零售商店和食品杂货店没有面临同样的限制。

“这不公平，也不实际，”他说。

不断变化的规则可能会导致客户困惑，甚至产生一些不满。苏珊娜·露西拥有北卡罗来纳州威克森林的第158页书店已经六年了。当大流行开始时，商店关闭了三个月。第158页图书去年7月重新开放，并遵循国家指导方针，逐渐将商店容量从5个增加到12个。去年假期前，产能限制被取消。

当今年夏天病例数开始攀升时，露西的邮政编码成为该州新冠肺炎病例数第三高的地区。他们在橱窗里有一个牌子，上面写着商店里需要一个面具，但是没有州或市的规定来支持他们，他们没有强制执行。

Lucey说一个月只有一两个人无视这个规则。

“这很难。你不想把人拒之门外。但我希望我的员工感到安全，”露西说，尤其是因为她的两名员工的健康状况使他们更容易受到伤害。“我不想让我的员工觉得他们必须斗志昂扬。我们就是这么处理的。大多数人都相当尊重。”

纽约麦克纳利·杰克逊书店的运营总监艾利森·格拉斯哥附和了露西的观点。

她的商店遵守州和市的限制规定。一家商店有一家咖啡馆，必须遵守纽约市对正在接种疫苗的顾客的规定。书店在活动中也需要疫苗接种证明。否则，如果顾客和工作人员接种了疫苗，口罩是可选的，尽管是推荐的。

“当你试图监测人们的疫苗接种状况时，你可能会显得很对立，”她说。“这不是‘嘿，欢迎进来!’这是你一直想做的——这有点像路障。"

尽管安全对每个人来说都是首要的，但这些变化对业主和员工来说都是巨大的损失。衣橱组织公司圣路易衣橱公司的创始人兼首席执行官詹妮弗·威廉姆斯说，该公司起初匆忙实施一项新冠肺炎计划，包括遮盖和加强消毒。

她说:“我们没有‘在家工作’的选择，我们的业务发生在我们的制造工厂和客户家中，因此我们必须在大流行开始时迅速调整，并采取Covid预防措施。

她在7月1日取消了口罩的要求，在她的工作人员完全接种疫苗后，新冠肺炎病例正在下降，疾控中心的建议发生了变化。但那是短暂的。

8月初，密苏里州是冠状病毒病例最多的三个州之一。威廉姆斯重新执行了面具命令。

威廉姆斯的员工每天可以花8个小时在一个面具上，在顾客家里安装壁橱整理系统。“员工的精神消耗已经到了极点，”威廉姆斯说。

费城独立健身工作室Lumos Yoga & Barre的老板杰西卡·本海姆(Jessica Benhaim)从春末到夏季逐渐提高了课程的规模限制，但将其上限设定为12个，低于大流行前18名瑜伽学生和14名Bare学生的水平。

尽管该市已经取消了容量限制，但她仍保持上限，以防限制再次出现。她于6月15日取消了对接种疫苗的学生的口罩要求，但在费城于8月中旬实施口罩强制令时，又恢复了这些要求。接种疫苗的学生可以在到达垫子时摘下口罩。

“过去18个月的不断调整已经消耗殆尽，”本海姆说。“最重要的是，在做出调整和努力让我的员工和客户保持正常感之间取得平衡是一件非常有压力的事情。”

Small businesses navigate ever-changing COVID-19 reality

NEW YORK -- For a brief moment this summer, it seemed like small businesses might be getting a break from the relentless onslaught of the pandemic. More Americans, many of them vaccinated, flocked to restaurants and stores without needing to mask up or socially distance.

But then came a surge in cases due to the delta variant, a push for vaccine mandates and a reluctant return to more COVID-19 precautions. Now, small business owners are left trying to strike a balance between staying safe and getting back to being fully open.

Navigating ever-changingcoronavirusreality comes with a number of risks, from financial hardship to offending customers to straining workers. Those challenges could intensify as winter approaches and outdoor alternatives become limited. Still, small business owners say the whiplash is worth it to keep customers and employees as safe as possible.

“Just weeks ago, small business owners hoped that a return to normalcy would help jump start our recovery,” said Jessica Johnson-Cope, Chair of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices National Leadership Council and owner of a small business herself, Johnson Security Bureau in New York.

New York City ordered a vaccine mandate for customers in August. For Dan Rowe, CEO of Fransmart, which runs the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, the mandate has been a financial burden, and a headache. Brooklyn Dumpling Shop first opened in May and has six staffers. It’s pandemic-friendly format is contactless and automated.

“It was engineered to be a restaurant with less employees,” Rowe said. Glass separates the kitchen and staff from customers, who orderfoodfrom an app. When the kitchen is finished making the food, it’s placed an automat-style window, so workers don’t come into contact with customers.

“We’ve engineered this great low labor restaurant, and the government is making us go backward,” he said.

Rowe had to hire another staffer to check vaccine cards at the door, increasing his overhead. His complaint is that retail stores and groceries with prepared foods like Whole Foods don’t face the same restrictions.

“It’s not fair what’s going on and it’s not practical,” he said.

The changing rules can cause customer confusion – and even some resentment. Suzanne Lucey has owned Page 158 Books bookstore in Wake Forest, N.C., for six years. When the pandemic began, the store was closed for three months. Page 158 Books reopened last July, and gradually increased store capacity from 5 to 12, abiding by state guidelines. Capacity limits were lifted ahead of the holidays last year.

When case numbers started crawling up this summer, Lucey’s zip code became the third highest in the state for COVID-19 cases. They have a sign in the window that says a mask is required inside the store, but without state or city rules to back them up, they’re not enforcing it.

Lucey said only about one or two people a month disregard the rule.

“It’s hard. You don’t want to turn people away. But I want my staff to feel secure,” Lucey said, especially since two of her staff have medical conditions that make them more vulnerable. “I don’t want my staff to feel like they have to be combative. So that’s how we’re handling it. Most people are pretty respectful.”

Allison Glasgow, director of operations for McNally Jackson bookstores in New York, echoed Lucey’s sentiment.

Her stores follow state and city rules for restrictions. One store has a cafe, which must follow the New York City mandate for customers being vaccinated. The bookstores also require vaccination proof at events. Otherwise, masks are optional, though recommended, if customers and staff are vaccinated.

“You can seem antagonistic when you’re trying to monitor people’s vaccination status,” she said. “It’s not ‘Hey, welcome in!’ which is what you have always wanted to do -- it’s a bit of a roadblock there.”

Although safety is the priority for everyone, the changes can be draining for owners and staff alike. Jennifer Williams, founder and CEO of closet organization company the Saint Louis Closet Co., said the company scrambled at first to implement a COVID-19 plan, including masking and increased sanitization.

“We don’t have the option to ‘work from home,’ our business happens in our manufacturing plant and in our client’s homes, so we had to adjust quickly at the onset of the pandemic with Covid precautions,” she said.

She nixed the mask requirement July 1, after her staff was fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases were declining and the CDC recommendations changed. But that was short-lived.

In early August, Missouri was one of the top three states of coronavirus cases. Williams re-implemented the mask mandate.

Williams’ staffers can spend up to eight hours a day in a mask installing closet organizing systems in a customer’s home. “The mental drain on employees has been extreme,” Williams said.

Jessica Benhaim, owner of Lumos Yoga & Barre, an independent fitness studio in Philadelphia, gradually increased size limits of classes from late spring into the summer, but capped them at 12, short of pre-pandemic levels of 18 students for yoga and 14 for barre.

Even though the city has lifted capacity restrictions, she’s keeping it capped in case restrictions come back. She lifted mask requirements for vaccinated students on June 15 but reinstated them when Philadelphia implemented a mask mandate in mid-August. Vaccinated students can remove their masks when they reach their mats.

“The constant adjustments over the last 18 months have been draining,” Benhaim said. “More than anything, it’s been stressful balancing making adjustments with trying to keep a sense of normalcy for my staff and clients.”