One of the most familiar verses in the Bible begins, “Everything has its season.”
And that appears to be a determining factor in the future of some of the independent businesses in Bedford affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’re open — but take a look at the travel industry. We’re aligned with them,” said Larry MacNeill, who with his wife Nancy has operated Crestview Kennel on South Road for more than 20 years. “Usually this time of year we have people getting ready to go to Europe or the Islands of wherever. Now even some states require visitors to quarantine.”
“Tailoring picks up with proms and weddings and communions – I get excited for that – but it just petered off,” said Greg Papazian, who is preparing to reopen his tailor shop on The Great Road after almost three months away. “Some of the dresses that came in for proms or weddings are still at my shop. Everything got canceled. By the end of March, business just went zero.”
“Lucky for us, it wasn’t our busy season,” said Joan Dunleavy at the venerable Zwicker skate shop in North Road. “We opened up with Phase 2, and we have been fitting skates and hanging in there. We did some curbside skate sharpening. It’s starting to pick up a little.”
MacNeill said the kennel has been open all spring, “doing a little bit of daycare for locals but certainly not enough to support the business. This normally is our prime time, but revenue is off 85 to 90 percent.”
“When this first started our summer was practically booked,” MacNeill reported. “We took cancellations from every single one of them. People are just afraid to get on a plane, about landing in a foreign country. I still have my employees but I’ve been digging out of my pocket for three months.”
“We’re hanging in there by a thread, but it’s difficult, to say the least,” MacNeill said. “Who would’ve thought?”
Papazian hopes to reopen as soon as Tuesday. “I can’t open full-time yet because the kids are at the house and my wife can’t be distracted while she’s working. But I have a feeling that when I go to work nothing is going to come in. There are no events. From March to June is my busy season. Then everybody goes on vacation, but I am still paying rent.”
Papazian is a third-generation tailor who opened his Bedford shop about 21 years ago when he was in his early 20s. “I grew up with my customers, seeing things come and go,” he said. In 2012 he enrolled at Massachusetts College of Art to work toward fulfilling a lifelong dream, and four years later – running the tailoring business throughout – received his bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration. “My customers stuck by me,” he testified.
At the end of February, Papazian recounted, “I was kind of on a high. I was the featured artist at a major fundraising gala at the Sheraton Commander in Cambridge. I did live painting for three hours and they auctioned off some of my paintings.”
A month later, the pandemic arrived. And now “both things I know how to do – art and tailoring — are not essential.” He informed his customers that he had to close, and wondered, “What’s going to happen with the business?”
He is still trying to figure that out. “In September my rent is going to go up again. A year from then my lease is up and I don’t think I’m going to make it.” Ideally, he would like to stay in Bedford and own a building for his business, but he acknowledged that over the years he has seen the number of small businesses shrink.
“I feel like I’m part of Bedford, said Papazian, noting that his first art show was here and he even had an artist’s program on Bedford TV. He also attached the new patches on Bedford police uniforms.
“Hanging out with my kids and my wife has been the silver lining,” he said. “I have a whole new perspective.”
Dunleavy, a member of the Zwicker family that opened the skate store in 1967, said the virus and subsequent closure “hit us at our slowest months, right after hockey.” Now there is a big demand for roller blades, “because people are home,” she said. “Those are hard to find in any store.”
“The rinks opening up,” she said. But if the virus is still an issue in the fall, “that won’t be a good time for us.”
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