Coronavirus Forces Salons, Restaurants To Get Creative

BOSTON (CBS) - The chairs at Marisa Marino's salon have been empty for the past week. Her business, Stilisti on Newbury Street, shut down in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

With no clients coming in, she came up with the idea to bring her salon to them. For the past few days, she has been custom making hair color kits and sending them to her regular clients, with instructions. "Bottle one into bottle two, 30 minutes, then you're done," she explained.

The kits sell for $45 and Marino says they have been very popular. "It's a win-win. We get a little cash flow, we're not falling as far behind week after week," Marino said. "And clients get to look good."

Marino is planning for a tough road ahead. She owns her property, and was able to have her mortgage deferred for three months. Her employees are her biggest concern. She had to furlough all 25 of them, but the cash flow from the kits is helping her pay for their health care, which she says costs her about $12,000 a month.

"Believe it or not we're halfway there," says Marino, "It's a lot of kits."

Restaurants have also had to adapt to this new normal. Jen Royle owns Table in the North End. "As a business owner, the one thing you have to do is you have to adjust, and you have to adapt," Royle said.

Royle opened the family-style restaurant just over a year ago. She's had to transform her sit-down eatery into a take out spot because of new regulations placed on restaurants across the state.

Royle says her business was not built on delivery or takeout. "We had to find a way for the orders to get to the restaurant, we had to be trained on that computer system," Royle said. "Then we had to get takeout containers, and bags, and then we had to put a system in place."

It took a few days, but she found a system that worked. Orders now come to a tablet in the kitchen, and guests can pick up their orders at the front door when it's ready.

Business has been steady. She's been able to make rent, and pay her staff. "This isn't going to be the first or the last time I'm going to have to rethink my business plan," Royle said.