While Governor Doug Ducey has shown little compassion or concern for the small business owners and their employees who have been affected by his drastic shutdown of Arizona, KFYI’s Rob Hunter and friends are doing all they can to lend a hand.
At the beginning of May, Gov. Doug Ducey said “When I give guidance statewide, it is statewide, and it is enforceable by law. A violation is a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail.” Now, at the end of August, bars, nightclubs, and gyms that haven’t closed for good are struggling to stay open.
Hunter, Chief Business Officer, and Justin Cross, CEO of Earn Your Booze, are raising funds and giving proceeds back to the local gyms and trainers who have been affected by the shut-down by selling shirts and accepting donations.
“I’ve gotta do something to raise awareness for these gyms, for the trainers and the people who are stuck at home,” said Cross. “They’re not staying active. Everyone is in a bad situation right now. I have friends who were greatly affected by the shut-down. All of the gyms put in ridiculous cleaning measures, hired expensive sanitization companies, did all this great stuff and invested in their companies just to keep their clients moving and then they were shut down again.”
For the last couple of years Justin felt that Ducey had done a fairly good job with the economy, but that has changed.
Cross knows firsthand from gym owners, like BODI in Scottsdale, that they have taken every precaution to keep their clients safe, at the same time places like Safeway don’t require the thousands of people who pass through their doors daily, to wear a mask.
If keeping people healthy is the goal of Ducey’s draconian shut down order and obesity is a factor in the lethality of COVID-19, then it makes little sense to allow Safeway to operate with few restrictions, while completely restricting access to the very places dedicated to eliminating obesity.
Earn Your Booze is working with Peak Nutrition to accept donations from people who would normally be paying their gym dues. Some gyms have been closed for 4 months and in the meantime, they still owe their rent, electric bills, and taxes, but they have no income based on Ducey’s orders. Without a government solution, Earn Your Booze is trying to help where they can.
“People want to stay in shape,” Rob said, “This is about the community that has been impacted through no fault of their own.”
Last week Ducey put out the Small Business Rent Relief Program, which is $10 million to help with rent assistance, but at the maximum allotment of $25K per business, it can’t help everyone.
“They put plastic over the ATM, but your fingers are hitting the same plastic as everyone else,” Justin said, “The grocery stores are much dirtier and much more of a risk than the gyms and seeing them go down in flames, losing their trainers who are out of work, I didn’t see it coming. Ducey took the easy way out instead of putting in the work and learning what it takes to keep people safe.”
He doesn’t think allowing some stores to stay open while others are forced to close is helping anyone because they can only be profitable at full capacity. Curb-side pickup is not cutting it for restaurants and on the small business level, Cross believes there could have been a lot more done to get people back to the gyms without requiring them to shut down.
“Some of these people have worked their entire lives to open a business,” Rob said, “It’s a risky thing to put it all on the line only to have the government say, “yeah sorry, not today!”