Downtown businesses look for new employees while dealing with COVID-19 impacts

PHOTO: Western Feed and Pet Supply, along with several other downtown businesses, are looking to hire.

By Bridget Nagle,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff-

With businesses downtown recovering from COVID-19 losses, many are looking to hire.

Tyler Hughes has been working at The Paint Chip for three years after transferring from her job across the road at Blaze Pizza. She says that the workplace definitely feels understaffed. 

“Last Saturday we had so much business. We had four of us here that day and it was still just a lot,” Hughes said.

The Paint Chip has two to three employees working most days, but for busier hours, the maximum number is four.

She says that the business, being an art supply store, did not lose many customers during the pandemic. “A lot of people came in here for activities to do […] so we didn’t get hurt there,” Hughes said.

Bizarro World owner Dan Urazandi, however, said that his business was struggling during the pandemic.

“These dollars aren’t the same. There’s unbelievable inflation, so while I’m making a dollar figure that’s comparable to a couple years ago, it’s not actually worth even a fraction,” Urazandi said.

Though considering himself lucky for keeping the business afloat, it was not easy. “I guess because my son and I were able to tighten the belt and just do all the labor ourselves, we made it through,” Urazandi said.

Lucas Brown, 21, has been working at Western Feed and Pet Supply since April. He says that the business has been seeing more customers as school starts up, as well as UC Davis students to hire.

“We’ve rotated through a couple people over the last several months,” Brown said. 

Brown works 12-15 hours a week to fit the job into his school schedule and expresses that though there are not very many employees there, it is usually enough to keep the business consistently staffed.

“Right now we’re kind of short, but we’re getting lots of applicants so we should be back up to a full staff capacity pretty soon,” Brown said.

Fleet Feet employee Camille Zigler was hired June 2021 and says that the workplace also feels understaffed. “Typically [on] weekends we are pretty consistent with a lot of customers,” she said. “We’re always on our feet.”

Fleet Feet has two to four employees in the workplace at a time, and despite facing staffing issues, has not had anybody quit over the past few months.

Fleet Feet, Western Feed & Pet Supply, Bizarro World, as well as Village Pizza, and many other downtown businesses are all looking to hire new employees.

“We’re slowly building back up,” Urazandi said. “It would be nice to move out a little more myself, with another part-timer or full-timer.”

While the Paint Chip is not currently hiring, “the owner is looking into hiring someone for the busy seasons coming up,” Hughes said.

Marianne Page, an economics professor at UCD, explains that there are a variety of reasons why businesses may be having trouble finding staff.

“The pandemic has hit low-income, disadvantaged, racially minoritized communities hardest,” Page wrote. “These are the folks who are most likely to be working the type of jobs in which there are currently shortages.”

She also says that understaffing issues might stem from a lack of childcare or a fear of catching COVID-19 on the job.

“[They’re] harder to measure, but anecdotally seem to be contributing,” Page wrote.