Anguish and survival
For people operating businesses in Santa Fe, COVID-19 came into their lives like a tornado — wrecking some and sparing others. Now, those on both sides of the disaster ponder a future that looks far different from the one they saw at the beginning of 2020
Stories of anguish: ‘Swimming upstream and asking, “How do we do this?” ’ Vanessa Perez, Forma Salon
Vanessa Perez says she thought the plug was pulled on her future the Thursday before Memorial Day.
She’d worked as a hair stylist for 10 years, but when state health orders forced her employer to shut down, Perez’s world was altered in almost every way.
The only thing to survive, she says, was her determination to persevere.
“I was devastated when they let me go,” she recalls.
Later in the year, with restrictions eased a bit, Perez made a huge wager on herself. She opened Forma Salon on Second Street on Aug. 18. The reasons — and the effect — had everything to do with the pandemic, and in some ways, nothing to do with the pandemic.
stores in Santa Fe.”
The Boutique had been around longer — 20 years as of April — while the Attic opened in 2014. Both sites were places where people could buy clothing, furniture, jewelry and other accessories. Sometimes, cuddly kittens and other critters were on hand just in case you wanted to adopt them while you were shopping.
Each store brought in somewhere between $300,000 and $350,000 annually for the shelter, Lindquist says.
“That Barkin combination — you go in, you felt positive about helping the community, helping businesses, helping animals,” Lindquist says.
But health restrictions on large gatherings limited the number of shoppers in the stores, and early fears that secondhand items might transmit the virus further cut into the business.
In all, six people lost their jobs.
Lindquist says the shelter perhaps will find a way to open at least one new similar store in the future, after the pandemic abates.