Businesses reflect on one year pandemic

MERIDIAN, Miss. - After hitting the one year mark of COVID-19, many businesses have had to settle with precautionary measures. Most businesses have relied on curbside pickup and delivery for several months. Owner Charles Frazier of Weidmann’s restaurant says it’s a learning experience for his restaurant.

“It changed in a lot of ways,” said Frazier. “We transitioned from a strictly dine-in service to a to-go model in the stages of COVID, but we’ve maintained that throughout, but obviously now we have the dine-in as well.”

Frazier says business has picked up over the weeks because of the COVID-19 vaccine, but they will continue to comply with safety guidelines for customers even though some restrictions have been lifted in the state.

“Obviously, we’ve done everything we can to mitigate the COVID as far as the masks with the employees, sanitizing stations throughout. We’re doing paper menus now. We bring everything out--nothing is preset on the tables.”

As far as retail shopping goes, most of the measures remain the same. Owner Clinton Hales says curbside pickup at The Liberty Shop has decreased over the months due to lower case numbers.

“It seemed like the demand for doing curbside and delivery was a little bit more early on for retail, but really toward the end of last year, that really subsided a little as people were being more comfortable shopping,” said Hales.

He says things are slowly getting back to normal.

“When things started shutting down last March and April, it was obviously a challenge, but we adjusted,” said Hales.

Weidmann's and The Liberty Shop are both located on 22nd Avenue in downtown Meridian.