WEBVTT - Small Businesses vs. The Pandemic 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.360 Hey, this is Tim. We're on vacation this week, but 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:06.840 the Crash Course team wanted to reair an episode we 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.080 had fun making about a small business in my hometown. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.760 We published this episode around the third anniversary of the 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:17.960 initial COVID nineteen lockdowns back in March, but the holiday 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.960 season is the most important time of year for small businesses, 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:24.160 so it feels fitting to share this episode again. Now, 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:28.160 thanks for listening, and happy holidays. We'll see you next year. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.480 Now here's the show. If you're ever invited to visit 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:34.840 a bakery at four o'clock in the morning, I highly 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.879 recommend you do it, but here's a warning. You might 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:42.040 get put to work. I can handle those, okay, I 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:43.160 can handle those, all right. 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:44.720 And you just dip it in. You just don't want 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:46.400 it to get like too much of a globby math, 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.479 so you just sort of like there and. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:51.200 One of these called strawberry sprinkle donuts. 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.360 Strawberry sprinkle donuts. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:57.040 Amazing, Okay, I'm now I'm gonna dip a bunch of 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.720 donuts into strawberry glaze and then put sprinkles on. 0:00:59.680 --> 0:00:59.960 Top of it. 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.520 That's my duty for today. However much I enjoyed my 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.560 brief internship as a baker with Amy. That wasn't the 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.039 main event for me. I was there to talk to 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.080 the bakery's owner, Rachel Wyman, and she came bearing treats. 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.440 You want to be ruined for the rest of your life? 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.600 Yeahs ruined me for the rest of my life. Oh gosh, 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:20.440 a hot blazed donut. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:21.920 Wow. 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:24.200 I have literally a hot glazed donut that was just 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.680 put in my palm on a piece of wax paper 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.679 that looks like Nirvana. And I'm gonna go ruin myself 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:32.400 for a minute because Rachel invited me to do that, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.279 and I'm gonna have this donnu. Welcome to Crash Course, 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.520 a podcast about business, political, and social disruption and what 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.400 we can learn from it. I'm Tim O'Brien. Today's Crash 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:50.360 Course small Businesses versus the Pandemic. Three years after the 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.680 COVID nineteen lockdowns, I invite you to think back to 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:54.720 those early days. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:59.960 COVID nineteen can be characterized as a pandemic. 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:04.120 All but promises that the coronavirus will spread. Here today, 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.200 I am officially declaring a national emergency. 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.600 Only essential businesses will be functioning. 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.720 All businesses will need to shut down. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.680 Remember when practically overnight it seemed that every shop closed 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.239 its doors. You remember how all of those small businesses 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.720 you might have taken for granted, the ones that gave 0:02:24.840 --> 0:02:28.600 life and an identity to your community, suddenly felt essential 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:32.560 to you. I sure do. Montclair Bread Company was one 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.280 of those shops. For me. It's souredaugh bread was a 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.519 staple on my family's dinner table, and it's maple bacon 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.760 donuts are the best in the world. As I watched 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:44.160 lots of small businesses in my small town in New 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:48.000 Jersey struggle, I didn't want the bakery to disappear. I 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.280 didn't want any of those stores to close. So I 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.200 started writing about them in their fight, just a few 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:57.639 businesses among tens of millions across the country that faced 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.480 an existential crisis because of COVID nine nineteen and I 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.400 started with Rachel Wyman, the owner of Montclair Brett. I 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.960 learned that she'd overcome so much a bad marriage, a 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:13.000 terrible bike accident, and money problems. Yet she found the 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.960 strength to leave her husband and raise her three children 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.639 on her own. And even though she had very little 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.200 Rachel chose just about the riskiest career you could imagine 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:27.120 the small business owner she had Moxie. I kept in 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.680 touch with her and watched her take on the trials 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.000 and tribulations of the pandemic threw at her. What I 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.160 didn't understand when I first got to know her back 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:37.840 in twenty twenty was that I would end up following 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.000 her journey for nearly three years through an unimaginable public 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:48.800 health and economic crisis. This is that story. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:52.040 You know. I've been thinking about this so much recently 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:55.880 because you know, we're coming up on the anniversary of that, 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.960 and all these pictures are popping up from February twenty twenty, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.160 like me and the kids, and it's like, God, we 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.280 had no idea, we had no clue what was going 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:08.800 to happen in just a couple weeks. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:12.080 When you're looking at those pictures, are you looking at 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.560 like the faces of people on the deck of the Titanic? 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.400 Yes, yeah, exactly, I am. And I think, you know, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.120 I still think that I suffer like PTSD from that 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.719 from twenty twenty, and I just can't let go of 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.719 a lot of things that happened during that year. As 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.520 you know, an essential service worker. It's been really hard 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:39.080 for me to go back to you know, status quo. 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.080 Before we hop back in time to the early days 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.960 of the pandemic, we should probably hop a little further 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.120 back in Rachel's story so you can understand how much 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.160 was on the line for her. She's earned everything she has. 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:55.920 Rachel grew up with little money in rural Maryland, worked 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.680 her way through school, and fell in love with bread 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.159 and pastries. After a state in France, she went to 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:05.359 the Culinary Institute of America, baked with some of the 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.240 biggest names in the bread business, and then decided to 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.400 go off on her own. She started by giving away 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.480 bread to moms in her yoga class, and then tried 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.560 breaking in through local farmers markets. Then one of those 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.280 moms told her about a local bakery for sale. 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.400 I pitched it to the moms who had been picking 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.200 up bread at my apartment, and they gave me the 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:28.599 money that I needed to get going. 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:32.000 So your seed capital were your moms, Yeah, yeah, moms 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:33.800 who were coming off for bread exactly? 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:35.480 And how much did you raise for me? 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:35.760 Yeah? 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.240 I was gonna say, when we're talking about seed capital, 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.800 forty thousand dollars total is what. 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:42.880 I had on day one. 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.600 This was back in twenty twelve, she juggled launching her 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.920 own shop while still working for another bread company full time. 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.400 So the only day of the week that I had 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.720 to focus on my bakery was Sunday, and that's when 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.520 I would like test recipes and try out new things 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.080 and make food for the staff. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.039 And we made donuts one day. 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.760 And they were gone in a second, and we did 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.279 a light bulb go off. Well yeah kind of, I'm like, wow, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.599 that's great, Let's do it again next week. And so 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.479 every Sunday we made donuts and the lines got longer 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.279 and longer and longer. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.279 And then it became a thing. Then it was a thing. Yeah, 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:22.160 I mean the donuts saved the business. 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.080 Rachel was on the map. It was time to cut 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.080 the parachute strings. After two years, she quit her other 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:34.200 job and went all in at Montclair Bread Company. She 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.839 had found her place in the world doing what she loved, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.200 and she was good at it, like really good. And 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:42.719 others began paying attention. 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:48.000 The town starts noticing, the press starts noticing, I'm getting 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:50.760 all of these accolades, get to go on a food 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.400 network and in the New York Times, And the better 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:55.680 it gets. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.440 On the outside the harder it gets. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:01.400 At home, she was consumed with self doubt. 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.479 So even though everyone else thinks that I'm this like 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.560 rock star, I think I'm like the worst mother in 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:08.120 the world. 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:11.280 And you know that I can't run this business, and 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:12.200 that I've you know. 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.800 Ruined our family life and had all of these things, 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:17.320 and it was awful. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:18.440 It was awful. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.200 Rachel decided she wanted a divorce, but had a hard 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.080 time actually leaving her husband. Her landlord also kicked her 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.840 out of her bakery, and then she got into a 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:32.800 bike accident while training for an iron Man triathlon, shattering 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:33.600 her pelvis. 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.720 It was always something like that, anytime we got a 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.240 little bit ahead, there'd be. 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:38.920 Something like that that would pop up. 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:45.679 That would you know, And yet you overcame all those yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.760 Rachel found a new home and finally left her husband. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.040 She was a single mother working crazy hours, but Montclair 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:55.520 Bread was able to move to a bigger, nicer building 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.320 around the corner, a renovated industrial space full of big 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:04.240 windows and spectacular brickwork, and of course, there was a 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.640 smell of baking bread. In addition to finding a new 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.800 home for her business, Rachel's body healed, though doctors told 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.160 her she would never be able to run again. She 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:16.840 clocked her best marathon time ever in the fall of 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.400 twenty nineteen, just a year after her accident. I was 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.040 on top of the world when COVID hit, and hit 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:24.720 it did. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.760 At the beginning, I believed it was only going to 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:29.040 be two weeks. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.440 Think all of us did, remember fifteen days to slow 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:38.520 the spread. Now I think, how were we so naive? 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:43.440 While other businesses were closing shop, Rachel was determined to 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.000 stay open, even if she was the only one there. 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.960 She'd been forced to lay off twenty of her employees, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.720 and without that extra help, she had to work around 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:52.200 the clock. 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.960 I worked eighteen hours. I went home, I slept in 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:57.760 the clothes that I worked in. I got up and 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.600 I did it again. And it's the same time that 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.360 people are on social media talking about how they make 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.520 their partner who works at a hospital, you know, leave 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.320 their clothes in the garage and come it. And I'm like, 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:11.440 I haven't changed my clothes and days. 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.080 Rachel lost big orders and had to cut lucrative items 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.560 from her menu, but she was also scrappy and got creative. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.800 She sold groceries and meal kits and diy baking packages 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.959 out of the store, and the community rallied around her. 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.040 I baked and sold more bread than I've ever baked 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.480 and sold in my career because people couldn't get it 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.720 at the grocery stores, so they actually bought bread from me. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.920 So you sort of had a little boomlet early on. Definitely, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.560 Definitely she kept going, but it was a lot. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:46.959 I really didn't think that I could sustain it. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:48.959 Did you think it was going to kill you? Did 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:50.440 you think the pandemic was going to kill you? 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:51.000 Yeah? 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.960 I did. I just reached my breaking point so many times, 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.240 and I just would sit there and not know how 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:00.679 to do it again tomorrow. 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.880 She wound up doing what more than five million other 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.959 small businesses did. She looked to the federal government for help. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.439 You know, everybody winds about government spending until they need 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.800 help when there's a hurricane or of flood. Who you 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.280 going to call when there's a massive economic contraction like 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.560 there was in two thousand and eight. Who you going 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:27.640 to call when there's an unprecedented economic meltdown combined with 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:32.760 the historic public health crisis? Who you going to call? Yeah? Washington. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.720 So what did the federal government do? The federal government 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:43.199 acted quickly, and it made a program which put cash 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.240 into the hands of small business owners. 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.160 That's Karen Mills, President Obama's first leader of the Small 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:53.760 Business Administration. She's describing how the Trump and Biden Whitehouses 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:59.080 ultimately channeled nearly one trillion dollars to small businesses. The 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.559 main program was an essential, well intentioned, yet chaotic scramble 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.720 known as the Paycheck Protection Program. 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:09.880 I never thought i'd see the day where three hundred 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.200 and fifty million dollars was in the same paragraph as 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:17.880 the word SBA. But that's how much money was in 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:22.199 the first trash of PPP that lasted about two and 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:23.760 a half weeks. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.000 That time, and funding went by in a flash, especially 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:27.960 for people like Rachel. 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:29.800 Of course, at the time, we didn't know there was 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.160 going to be a second round of funding, so the 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.400 funding was gone, and how did that feel? 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:40.000 Defeating oversight and management of the PPP effort was slipshot. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.960 Treasury Secretary Steve Manuchin, who engineered the effort, was reluctant 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.319 to be transparent about the process, even when he was 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.200 specifically asked about it during a Senate hearing in May 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.200 of twenty twenty nearly two months after the legislation providing 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.319 for PPP was passed. Here's Senator John Tester of Montana. 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:05.800 When can we see full information about who's getting the dollars? 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.720 Well, let me just comment. When we negotiated this bipartisan deal, 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:15.440 we agreed to unprecedented transparency, So we agree to release 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.280 things that are not required by thirteen to three. So 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.520 I don't know why you haven't seen that. We've everything's 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.679 posted on our website or the Fed's website. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.400 They went back and forth a few times. Are you 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.760 sure the information is there? Yep? It's there. Are you 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.160 sure yep? The Tester wasn't buying it. 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.079 I look forward to seeing that list, by the way, 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.200 Secretary Mansion, and I'm going to go online and I'm 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.280 going to search it because I'm going to tell you 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:46.120 that as much transparency as you said, are with this program, 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.960 as a center from Montana, as a member of the 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.560 Banking Committee, I'm not seeing any of it. 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:55.200 Quite frankly, it wasn't clear exactly who was getting the 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.920 funding or how it was being used. Rachel couldn't get 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.000 PPP money the time it was offered, and she watched 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.920 her application stall online. She ended up applying for a 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.440 loan four times before she finally got some money one 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.600 hundred and five thousand dollars. It saved her business and 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:14.160 then some. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:16.680 For the first time in history. 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:22.880 January twenty twenty one, we officially were one hundred percent 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.840 debt free Love Her Bread Company. We paid off all 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:30.160 of our investors, We paid off any debts that we had. 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:33.000 You know, we got a good staff and everything. It 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.120 was just like, all right, We're never going back there. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:38.839 We will never be back in this place again where 0:13:38.880 --> 0:13:41.600 we have so much debt on the business. Like it 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.600 feels too good to get ahead. What do we have 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:45.600 to do to stay here? 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:48.880 She started off January twenty twenty one on a new foot, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.240 and there were reasons to think the end of the 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:52.320 pandemic was in sight. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.400 I got my vaccination on January sixth, twenty twenty one. 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:00.280 I was one of the first because at the time 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.360 there was a windowwhere anyone who was working in the 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.880 service industry in front of people could get in. 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.920 Did the vaccines feel like sort of a God send 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:11.360 to you when they came along. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.280 Yeah, it definitely just felt like relief because there were 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.960 just so many unknowns. No one knew when it would end, 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.960 how it would end. I don't think it has ended, 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.560 but it just felt like there was progress. 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.680 And the vaccines gave you a sense of control over things, 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:33.840 or more control. 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:37.880 Than you had I ever feel, yeah, or you know, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.520 it's just like that peace of mind from having that 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:44.320 PPP loan, you know, sitting in our account as a buffer. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.400 I think the vaccine was that same piece of mind, 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.160 like I guess some level of protection. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.680 That peace of mind was nice while it lasted. When 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.560 we get back from the break, I'll take you through 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.480 year two of Rachel's experience during the pandemic twenty twenty one, 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.200 and the big idea is she had to grow her business. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:11.360 That's next. The story of Rachel's twenty twenty one might 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.520 actually start back in twenty twenty, when Rachel was so 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.400 burnt out that she decided to close Montclair Bread for 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.720 two days and rent an airbnb in New Pulse, New York. 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:23.080 She knew the area well from when she went to 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.960 the Culinary Institute of America nearby, and I. 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.840 Went up there and I got to run on the 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.560 trails and have a quiet space. At the time, I 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:39.680 couldn't run something that I used to keep my sanity running. 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.360 Although it's therapeutic, it's not therapy, That's what I've been told. 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.200 She rented that airbnb once a month for six months. 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:51.360 She went for runs, rested, recharged, and she ended up 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.560 writing a book in that Airbnb, We'll Run for Donuts, 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:59.120 The Montclair Bread Company Cookbook. Rachel eventually decided to rent 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.000 a cheap studio apartment in New Paults while also keeping 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.960 her families rental in Montclair. Although she originally sought an 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:10.160 escape in New Pults, she eventually found inspiration too, in 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.120 the form of a new business opportunity. It all started 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.200 after she took up rock climbing. Climbing helped her clear 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.400 her head and make new friends. So after Montclair Bread 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.200 closed on Sunday, she'd head up to New Pults. 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:24.960 And if there were donuts left over, I'd pack them 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:28.720 up and take them to my climbing friends. So then 0:16:28.760 --> 0:16:32.600 they started asking for them, then they started ordering them, 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.080 and then I was in a parking lot and a 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.760 trailhead with donuts in my trunk, like you know, on 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.280 Sunday afternoon, handing them out to these climbing friends and 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:47.160 friends and friends. And I thought, there's got to be 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:48.760 a more reasonable way to do this. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.000 She followed a familiar path. First she gave the donuts away, 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.000 Then she found a farmer's market. 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:57.360 We set up at the farmer's market. In the first week, 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:01.520 there's like couple people in line three. There's a line 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:03.760 all the way across the parking lot and down the 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:05.960 block waiting for the donuts. 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:08.800 Then she opened a new shop in New Pults in 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.560 the fall of twenty twenty one, and she felt really 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.000 embraced by the community there. 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.280 The first weekend I was open. It was a soft opening. 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.000 I never publicized it, and I had every member of 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.919 the town council come and introduce themselves and give me 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:24.040 their phone numbers in case I needed anything. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:26.440 This was all going on around the time a new 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:31.560 COVID nineteen variant Delta was making its rounds. Even though 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.639 infection surged, Rachel was feeling good about the state of 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:39.879 her business until the holiday season came around and pushed 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.320 Rachel to her brink because the embrace she felt from 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.080 the New Paltz community was sometimes hard to find in Montclair, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:52.439 and an even more infectious COVID variant Omicron was waiting 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:56.119 in the wings. All of this made the holidays more stressful. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:01.760 First Thanksgiving holiday dedicated to gratitude. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.280 You know, we were really short staff on Thanksgiving Day, 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.240 but we opened to give out orders and for retail, 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:11.200 and of course we start selling out because it's Thanksgiving 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.240 Day and people were just screaming at my staff. Somebody 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:17.360 screamed at one of the retail employees because it took 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.760 three minutes to wait for her coffee. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.880 Second Christmas, a holiday dedicated to salvation. 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.600 Christmas Eve was when we got the first call out. 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.520 We got everything like shuffled around. A couple hours later, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.600 somebody else called out, and then I feel like, well 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:36.960 do we close for the week. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:38.040 We can't afford to. 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:40.720 We have to be open at least three days this 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:43.159 week for the orders that we've already taken. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.200 Third New Year's Eve, a holiday dedicated to renewal. 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.600 New Year's Eve, we get the first baker call out, 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.200 so we had six people out and two people pending tests, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.520 and we decided to close on the first and second. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.240 So for two weeks ends in a row, we were closed. 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.760 Montclair Bread needed twelve people to open its doors every 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:10.280 day any less, and they were facing major inefficiencies. Orders 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:13.760 wouldn't come out on time. With twenty people on staff 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:17.440 and only twelve who were full time employees, that left 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.560 little wiggle room for Omicron infections, so they decided to 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.160 close shop for a whole week. Rachel committed to paying 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.120 anyone on her staff who was scheduled to work, but 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:29.520 no new money was coming in. 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.240 The two weeks that we had to close days the 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.440 weekends would have been our busiest weeks of the year, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:38.280 and they were the worst that. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.080 We've had on record for December. 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:45.560 So normally that would give us a buffer to get 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.200 through January and February where sales are always low. 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.200 We always cut hours. 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:54.000 And January and February, but there's no buffer, like there's nothing. 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:54.639 To get us through. 0:19:55.280 --> 0:19:58.240 Suddenly, Rachel was at the end of her rope because 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:02.520 Omicron had spent weeks stating her bakery's business. The peace 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.639 of mind and protection she felt like she had at 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.919 the beginning of twenty twenty one was gone. 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:09.440 There was definitely a time in my life where I 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.800 would have opened at any cost, even if it was 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:15.240 just me. But by December twenty twenty one, I'm like 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.760 closed the door, Just lock the door. 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.240 Rachel sent an email to Montclair Bread's customers right after 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:25.680 the new year, with the subject line SOOS, she wrote 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.800 that she was waving her white flag. When my wife 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:32.560 received that email, I worried a closed sign might appear 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.680 in Rachel's window soon, so I dropped by to check 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:38.479 in on her. The pandemic was starting to take its 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:43.120 toll on Rachel, on her staff, her customers, everyone. 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:45.680 Two years ago, at the beginning of this, you had 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:49.080 this incredible community support because we were open when no 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:50.040 one else was. 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:51.840 But now. 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.520 There's just, you know, overall, a lack of empathy for 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:00.000 what small businesses were going through and enduring. The big 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.240 thing that they don't appreciate is that we're not making 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:05.680 up the rules. There's no playbook for us, and there's 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.920 no centralized agency either local, state. 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.440 Federal, that's giving us any source of information about how 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.359 we're supposed to handle it. Like we're deciding the fate 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:17.280 of everything. 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:20.440 Just like three of us who don't have medical backgrounds, 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.960 don't have science backgrounds. We just bake Brett and we're 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:25.200 like trying to make all of these decisions. 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:29.520