The Untold Stories of COVID-19 in New York City Businesses

NEW YORK– Although the pandemic has affected businesses worldwide causing a major decline, one business in Canarsie, New York remains intact through the trials and tribulations. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted several businesses in the city of New York. Many small family-owned businesses that were started before this pandemic were forced to close down or suffered a dramatic decrease in income making families struggle to keep their housing intact.

The Juice Bar establishment is named Twisted Rootz. It is located at 7905 Flatlands Ave Brooklyn, NY, 11236. Twisted Rootz is owned by Kerlie Napoleon and her husband Rony Saintard who also has three daughters by the name of Kayla, Jade, and Khloe Saintard who help at the juice bar.

Most juice bars, restaurants, and other juice companies are reporting a decrease in sales. About 62% report a decrease in sales. 21% report things are about the same. Some juice bars are being forced to shut down by government demand in their local region according to the Food and Drug Administration and Charlie Wettlaufer, a GoodNature author who discussed this issue on juice bar restaurants during the pandemic.

Rarely, other restaurants have persevered through the trials and tribulations of having a restaurant during the pandemic. The statistics say that about 17% of juice companies that completed the survey report an increase in sales during the pandemic. According to goodnature.com obtaining this from a census done by the US Government on census.gov. One of these establishments is a registered juice bar-restaurant that is located in the inner-city neighborhood of Canarsie, Brooklyn.

“Our family was one of the first juice bars in Canarsie to open up,” said Kerlie Napoleon in a 40-minute phone call interview.

“Restaurants around us were scared to stay open due to the pandemic getting bad so it was a conscious decision to stay open when covid first started.”

As a family, they decided to keep the business running, and to keep people coming, they had to think outside the box with what their customers could order, according to Napoleon. They were the only standing juice bar left and customers kept coming back for more.

“Ginger and turmeric immunity booster shots were popular once covid came about, wellness shots have antioxidants and Vitamin C that are great for building the immune system.”

People are looking to increase their intake of immunity-strengthening nutrients which is why it is proven through statistics that juice bars that express they have these ingredients have been able to make sales.

“We started selling homemade remedies we were doing within our own home. We sold homemade teas, sticking to our roots”, Napoleon said.

Other healthy menu options were fresh-pressed juice smoothies with ingredients like beets, spinach, ginger, pineapple, and kale as well as salads customizable with different toppings.

Panini wraps and grilled chicken was popular as well.

Napoleon explained for a month and a half it was great but it started getting harder, she left the store due to anxieties and pressures, especially from her family who were concerned about their safety.

“If you did not have a sign explaining that customers needed a mask before coming in as well as a vaccination card, later on, there would be a $5000 fine by the Health Department,” Napoleon said.

There were many restrictions and as an owner, it was hard to manage everything at once.

“We had to run a business which is hard within itself, then check vaccinated ID cards, log everyone that came into the shop in a notebook, take care of customers as well as staff, it was just too much to handle and still is,” Napoleon said.

According to Servsafe.com, Serfsave practices when involving juice bars certain procedures to take when maintaining this type of business are using antimicrobial produce wash to clean your fruit and vegetables.

Once the product is clean, it should be handled with gloves so it doesn’t have to be contaminated. This should be taken into account for juicing.

If any staff member is showing symptoms—or has been in contact with anyone with symptoms—They should be kept away from the business entirely.

The FDA normally recommends every four hours there is a thorough cleaning. If it is normally done where a super-deep cleaning of facilities is every week or every month, it is advised to do it every day if possible.

“ Taking all these safety procedures and people in the news were dying every day it felt like we were fighting an invisible virus and I became afraid to go out. As an establishment, you are always required to clean everything with bleach water but it seemed like were triple-dosing everything. Eventually, I allowed my workers to stay home and the only ones allowed to work in the shop were family to keep the business running.”

Kerlie Napoleon expressed how the inner working of the restaurant although sales were remaining and going great it was also a battle with the pandemic still in place.

“It wasn’t fun anymore, the masks made it hard to hear along with the barriers surrounding the desk,” Napoleon said.

Juice bars are adapting by offering pick-up and delivery and finding other ways to keep their business going. Uber Eats is waiving its delivery fees for restaurants. Some juice bars are offering drive-through orders.

Juice bars have begun shifting to become more like organic markets, offering organic produce, snacks, and other essential items to their customers, which can fill a need when the local grocery stores are out of stock or don’t offer high-quality health and wellness products. Wettlaufer said.

Source List

Kerlie Napoleon

646-509-9309

Kayla Saintard

347-513-9873

Good Nature

1 800-875-3381 (had to fill out a contact form and then they emailed me back)

Coronavirus what can you do? - ServSafe. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.servsafe.com/ServSafe/media/ServSafe/Documents/Coronavirus_COVID-19_Info_TipsforRestaurants.pdf

Coronavirus what can you do? - ServSafe. (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.servsafe.com/ServSafe/media/ServSafe/Documents/Coronavirus_COVID-19_Info_TipsforRestaurants.pdf