New year, same struggles: Reno small businesses fear post-holiday sales slump will be steeper in pandemic era

by Kaleb Roedel

Tabu McKnight checks his phone. It’s 4:40 p.m. No missed call. It’s a Tuesday afternoon in early January and McKnight, owner of Tabu’s of Reno Barber Lounge, is starting to doubt the person who scheduled a haircut for 4:30 p.m. is going to show up.

“We’ve had a lot more no call, no shows,” says McKnight, staring out the windows of his downtown Reno barbershop. “And that’s been pretty hard. We’re a service-based business. Our livelihood is connected to people that come in and we provide service. But, if they don’t come in, then we can’t have our livelihood.”

Throughout the pandemic, McKnight, like most small business owners, has adjusted to a lot of changes. The shutdowns. The capacity limits. The masks.

But perhaps the most glaring reminder of how much business has changed since mid-March is when his phone sits in his pocket silent for long stretches throughout the day.

“Before the pandemic, it was at the point where I would just have to shut off my phone,” McKnight says with a laugh. “I can only cut so many heads a day.”

Read the entire article in the NNBW: https://www.nnbw.com/news/new-year-same-struggles-reno-small-businesses-fear-post-holiday-sales-slump-will-be-steeper-in-pandemic-era/