About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 2020)
BUSINESS Nate McCullough | News Editor The Times, Gainesville, Georgia 770-718-3431 | news@gainesvilletimes.com Weekend Edition-December 26-27, 2020 ‘We are struggling’ JOHN BAZEMORE I Associated Press Shanita Matthews plays with her 6-year-old daughter Breilin in her home, Wednesday, Dec. 23, in Suwanee, Ga. Matthews, who had to close her wedding business because of the coronavirus outbreak, has scaled back her Christmas plans. US hiring slows in Nov.; jobless seeing bleaker Christmas BY JOSEPH PISANI AND CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Associated Press NEW YORK — Last Christmas, Sha nita Matthews cooked up a feast for her family of three: Roast chicken, barbecue spareribs, spinach, macaroni and cheese. This year? They’ll stick with tuna fish and crackers, among the few items she can afford at the supermarket. “We’re not really doing Christmas — I guess you can say it that way,” said Mat thews, who lives in Suwanee, Georgia. “We are struggling. We are tired, and all I have is my faith.” Like nearly 10 million other Americans, Matthews has been jobless since the viral pandemic ripped through the U.S. economy in March, triggering a devastating reces sion and widespread unemployment. Now, many months later, they face a holiday season they hardly could have foreseen a year ago: Too little money to buy gifts, cook large festive meals or pay all their bills. Nearly 8 million people have sunk into poverty since June after having spent $1,200 checks that the government gave most Americans in the spring and a $600-a-week supplemental jobless benefit expired in July, according to research by Bruce Meyer at the University of Chi cago and two other colleagues. And find ing a job is getting even harder: Hiring in November slowed for a fifth straight month, with U.S. employers adding the fewest jobs since April. Some relief may — potentially — be on the way. This week, Congress approved a $900 billion pandemic rescue package that includes a $300-a-week unemploy ment benefit, cash payments of up to $600 for most individuals and a renewal of extended jobless aid programs that are about to expire. On Tuesday night, though, President Donald Trump injected doubts about that urgently needed federal aid by attacking the rescue package as inad equate and suggesting that he might not sign it into law. Help, in the meantime, can’t come soon enough for Matthews. With her bank bal ance now negative, she worries that her account could be closed if she doesn’t receive financial aid soon. Matthews, 41, has been struggling with her finances since she had to shut down her wedding business in March, when ceremonies were canceled and any need for the centerpieces and flower arrange ments she made suddenly evaporated. Matthews was denied unemployment aid by Georgia’s labor department. She doesn’t understand why and is appealing the decision. But the process is so slow that she’s waited months just to get a hearing. Despite being a registered nurse, Mat thews has been unable to land a job. She can work only late hours because she often needs to help her 6-year-old daugh ter, who must do virtual learning at home when virus cases spike at her school. Matthews’ car was repossessed after she couldn’t keep up with payments. Most of what her husband earns goes to a $1,600 mortgage on their home. That leaves them with about $200 a month for groceries, utilities and a $50 inter net bill — a necessity for her daughter’s schoolwork. Matthews hopes that a relative can step in and buy a Christmas gift for her daughter. “We want to be able to have food, water, heat,” she said. “Those are the things that we care about.” Charities say they have been over whelmed with requests for help, a sign many are in deep financial distress. The United Way expects the number of calls to the 211 hotline it funds to double from last year to 20 million calls, mostly from people needing help paying rent or electricity bills. Feeding America says many of the people showing up at food banks are first timers. Out of desperation, Sheyontay Molton turned to Twitter for help after a series of events left her with no money to buy gifts for her four children. Her children’s father lost his job this year. Molton, who is 28 and lives in San Antonio, Texas, had to temporarily stop working as a delivery driver for Door- Dash after falling debris from a truck severely damaged her car in October. She used part of her rent money to repair it, leaving her behind on bills. Having noticed on Twitter that social media influencers and celebrities were providing cash to some needy people, Molton created an account and tweeted about her situation. Someone sent her $200 through an app — money that she plans to use for groceries. Another couple on Twitter asked her to create an Amazon Wishlist and then bought her kids a doll, cars and other toys for Christmas. Without the donations, Molton had planned to tell her young kids that Santa Claus couldn’t come because he was tak ing extra coronavirus precautions. “Silly, I know,” she said, But “it would have bought me more time.” The struggles of low-income workers and the unemployed are contributing to a weak holiday shopping season that will likely drag on the overall economy. Retail sales fell 1.1% in November, a month that is typically strong as gift buying gets under way. Some economists expect retail sales to decline again this month, particularly as governments impose more business restrictions and rising coronavirus cases keep consumers away from stores and restaurants. Hall jobless rate ticks up in November The Hall County area’s unemployment rose to 3.5% in November, according to a Georgia Department of Labor press release Thursday, Dec. 24. The release doesn’t say what may have caused the increase, but labor officials say Hall saw its workforce grow in November. “Although the unemployment rate increased across the state, we have held consistently steady numbers in areas such as job growth and employment,” Labor Commissioner Mark But ler said. “We will continue to fill the jobs that are currently available, in order for us to move our economy back to where it was pre-pandemic.” Hall’s jobless rate was up over the 2.9% in October and 2.2% a year ago, but the labor force increased by 1,068 and ended the month with 102,033, the department said. Jeff Gill Airbnb moves to curb large gatherings over holidays ANDREA CHANG Los Angeles Times That secret party-house rager you were hop ing to throw on New Year’s Eve? Don’t think you can book it on Airbnb. The short-term rentals site has clamped down on listings during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to prevent large gatherings of the sort health authorities are urging people to avoid. That includes instituting a global ban on all parties and events until further notice and restricting users under 25 from booking entire homes in the areas where they live, a move that a spokeswoman said has resulted in more than 770,000 blocked reser vation attempts in the U.S. and Canada. Over Halloween weekend, Airbnb prohibited one-night reservations in entire-home listings to reduce parties. It is implementing a similar (though slightly looser) measure for New Year’s Eve, banning guests without a history of positive reviews from making one-night reservations for entire homes. Guests who have a history of positive reviews will not be subject to the rule, and those who booked one-night reservations for New Year’s Eve before Dec. 3 can go ahead with their plans as well. With strict travel restrictions in place around the world, and people growing weary of not being able to socialize, many have turned to short-term rental sites to get out of their homes and hang out with friends. The businesses, along with city, county and state officials, have sought to curb such gather ings, but it can be challenging. Airbnb, which has a trove of user data that it taps to analyze and predict guest behavior, has implemented “high- risk detection systems” that flag potentially problematic reservations — such as bookings made for large groups — for manual review. The technology looks at attributes including the duration of a user’s stay, whether he or she has a history of positive reviews, the size of the listing, and the number of nights of the reservation. The San Francisco company said it has identified and proactively canceled roughly 9,000 high-risk res ervations in the U.S. and Canada as a result. Many small retailers prioritizing safety over sales BY JOYCE M. ROSENBERG Associated Press NEW YORK - Retailers are taking extraordinary steps this hol iday season in hopes of lessening the spread of the virus. The steps go beyond limiting the number of people in a store; besides encourag ing online shopping, many owners are setting up appointments before and after hours for private shop ping trips. Owners ask customers in their stores to limit the amount of time they spend there. Curbside pickup, delivery and shipping are standard operating procedure. All this is in addition to state and local restrictions on how many people can be in a store at a time. Some owners have decided to set a limit even where there are no gov ernment orders, which can often be much less than what they would expect during the holiday season. Small and independent retailers have been among the hardest-hit businesses during the pandemic. Not only are they contending with government restrictions, but many consumers worried about catch ing the virus don’t want to shop in person. The plunge in revenue has forced more than 8,600 stores to close this year, according to Core sight Research, a market research firm that specializes in retailing. Consumers reluctance was reflected in a 1.1% drop in retail sales in November, according to the Commerce Department. The changes in stores this year can be dramatic or subtle. In toy stores, usually children can plow through bins of small toys and pick out what they want. There’s a clus ter of small items at the checkout counter that parents buy on impulse, extending the shopping trip a bit and adding to the retailer’s bottom line. Store owners are also helping customers shop more efficiently. At Perch, a gift and home fur nishings store in San Francisco, a growing number of customers are taking advantage of private shopping appointments. Owner Zoel Fages is reserving the last two hours of each day for appoint ments and gives shoppers a ques tionnaire to fill out ahead of time so he can set aside gift suggestions before they arrive. When customers arrive at Eco- Home Fine Gifts & Home Decor in Atlanta, a sign welcomes them but also asks them to be considerate because other shoppers would like to enter the store. And they’re pay ing attention, staying usually 20 to 30 minutes rather than the hour to hour and a-half owner Lawton Hall expects for this time of the year. “I’m pleasantly surprised at how cooperative people have been,” Hall says. The store is currently serving about 15 to 20 people at a time, half the usual number. They also don’t seem to mind that some of the usual amenities the store offers, like free coffee, aren’t available. Many aren’t in the mood to chat with employees. “Most people just want to get out and not be distracted,” Hall says. His revenue is better than he expected, perhaps because many customers don’t eat at restaurants. They have more money to spend on gifts or on their homes. Most of Sadie Cherney’s custom ers would rather shop online than come to her three Clothes Men tor shops in the Greenville, South Carolina, area. On Black Friday, she counted 82 people in her stores at the busiest time of the day, a fifth of what she’s seen in previous years. Revenue is down about a third from normal. While online shopping is help ing Cherney’s stores survive, it can take staffers 40 hours a week to keep the site fresh. Clothes Men tor, a franchise retailer, buys and sells gently used clothing. So each garment is unique, and the site has thousands of images to upload and then, when the clothes have sold, be taken down. “The work feels like running six stores, not three,” Cherney says. “I am definitely fatiguing. I want to be resilient, but it’s getting a lit tle harder,” Cherney says. FDA warning: A Whole Foods problem is ‘a pattern’ DAVID J. NEAL Miami Herald Macaroni & Cheese. Vodka sauce. Green Chile Chicken Tama les. These were just three of the foods recalled by Whole Foods Market for undeclared allergens not revealed on the packaging. And the FDA is tired of the mis takes that can make people with food allergies sick. The FDA posted a warning letter Tuesday sent to Whole Foods “for a pattern of receiving and offering for sale misbranded food prod ucts necessitating a series of food recalls for allergens.” Just to make sure nobody thought this was a typical warning letter, the FDA stated: “This is the first time the FDA has warned a retailer for engaging in a pattern of receiving and offering for sale mis branded food products containing undeclared allergens.” A statement from a Whole Foods spokesman emailed to the Miami Herald Tuesday afternoon said, “Whole Foods Market takes food safety very seriously. We are work ing closely with the FDA to ensure all practices and procedures in our stores meet if not exceed food safety requirements. We remain committed to maintaining the highest quality standards in the industry.” Food allergy recalls are the most common Class 1 recalls, those made to avoid the most serious possible consequences. Depending on the person, food allergy reac tions can go from mild to deadly with terrifying swiftness. In 2018, Weston teenager Alexi Stafford accidentally ate a Chips Ahoy cookie with peanut butter. She died 90 minutes later. This is why ingredient labels list common allergens separate, usually immediately beneath the other ingredients. The major food allergens noted include milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat and soy. Not only has Whole Foods had to yank 32 food products, by the FDA’s count, in the last year for undeclared allergens, but the agency saw the same thing when it looked at other years. “These products included a vari ety of foods sold under the Whole Foods brand primarily in the deli and bakery sections of the store,” the FDA said. The actual letter, dated last Wednesday, listed five different recalls since November 2019 for which Whole Foods blamed mis takes by suppliers, store employ ees and their internal labeling system, among other elements. The FDA followed that with a boiler-plate closing for a warning letter, which states Whole Foods has 15 working days to respond in writing with exactly what it’s doing to cut down on this happening. “Failure to promptly correct these violations may result in enforcement action by FDA with out further notice, including sei zure and/or injunction.”
