By Joshua Huff, sports editor
BIRMINGHAM — The financial burden brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has one barbershop in Hoover set to reopen in defiance of Gov. Kay Ivey’s statewide order that all non-essential businesses close to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 throughout Alabama.
The Male Room, located in the Inverness Corners and Plaza, announced on Facebook that the full-service barbershop will reopen for business on Friday, April 17, 2020, at 10 a.m.
“The Male Room was one of the many businesses forced to close back in mid-March,” Scott Farr, president and partner of Ervin, Farr Inc., said in the Facebook post. “And while we are extremely sensitive to the serious implications of the virus, we are none the less faced with an equally serious dilemma regarding the future viability of our business. This dilemma extends to our employees and service providers as well. Workers and businesses must have income to survive.”
Along with the 22 million other unemployed individuals throughout the country, the barbershop and its employees have applied for financial relief, yet the slow process of receiving those funds have placed The Male Room in a situation where Farr realized that there was not much left for him to do but to reopen the business and generate some sort of income.
“There are programs in the works to provide funds to workers and businesses to offset the lack of income during this crisis,” Farr wrote. “These programs, though, take time to find their way to those they are intended to help. The Male Room and staff have applied for this relief. And while this relief may eventually find its way to us, we are left with no other choice than to reopen for business now. So, given the circumstances, The Male Room will reopen for business.”
Employees will not be forced to come back to work, Farr added. In fact, several employees have already stated an unwillingness to return and Farr said that there will be no “negative ramifications for electing to stay at home. Some have already stated they are not comfortable returning to work at this point and they are free to return once they are comfortable doing so.”
The Male Room intends on implementing several steps meant to alleviate the health risks involved with performing a task that shatters all social distancing guidelines:
- Limited services will be available by appointment only. This will be on a first come, first served basis via phone calls to 205-995-4285 and via email to frontdesk@cutandshave.com.
- There will be no waiting within the footprint of the shop. Clients are asked to wait within their vehicle until their specified appointment time. We will send a text when it is clear to enter the building.
- In an effort to provide ample space for social distancing between stations, staff will be limited to 4 service providers as opposed to normal capacity of eight. This should place no more than 10 people within the building at any given time.
- Services are also limited to haircuts and neck shaves only. No spa or facial services such as pedicures, waxing or beard grooming will be performed.
- Service providers will be wearing face shields and will thoroughly sanitize stations between each appointment.
- All transactions will be 100% credit card and a self-checkout process is being implemented. The service provider will queue client charges and the client will swipe/insert their card into the terminal themselves.
The Male Room’s decision to defy governmental orders follows several groups throughout the country that have grown tired of the toll that statewide shelter-in-place orders have had on the economy.
In Kentucky, around 100 people protested on Wednesday the restrictions Gov. Andy Beshear has put in place in order to stem the spread of a virus that has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and has killed more than 133,354 people. In Michigan, protests drew an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people, about 150 of whom demonstrated on the Capitol steps and on the main lawn.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said after the protests that their actions could end up prolonging the stay-at-home orders they were protesting.
“The sad irony here is that … they don’t like being in this stay-at-home order and they may have just created the need to lengthen it, which is something we’re trying to avoid at all costs,” Whitmer said.
There has been no indication as to what the state of Alabama will do if The Male Room does indeed decide to reopen. As of now, the fine for any company that ignores the statewide order shuttering non-essential businesses is $500 along with a misdemeanor charge.
“We are making this difficult decision because not doing so ensures the business will fail,” Farr wrote. “I cannot in good conscience stand by and voluntarily forego a business that many people have worked so hard to build and maintain. Within Governor Ivey’s order under provision ‘e’ To Work, point (i), we do this to preserve the value of our business. Granted, we are not designated, according to the state of Alabama as ‘essential’ but the income in which we have been deprived through governmental mandate is essential to our staff and their families. No one is being forced to work. This is a voluntary action.”
As of Thursday morning, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Alabama reached 4,249 with 82 confirmed deaths. There are 126 reported deaths.