It's been five years since Michigan’s first COVID-19 case catapulted us into this century’s first pandemic, changing many aspects of our lives – including a total disruption of entire economies.
Even though the months of quarantine and social distancing are long gone, some business owners are continuing to recover from the COVID pandemic shutdowns.
This week, Stateside presents a podcast special, Revival: How COVID-19 changed us, reflecting on how the pandemic unfolded, and how we might lean into the challenges that remain. For our third episode we take a look at the effects the COVID pandemic had on local businesses and how past pandemics have shaken societies in parallel ways.
The Black Death
In March 2020, Michigan reported its first documented case of COVID-19, which was soon followed by a statewide quarantine. This shutdown changed the way people socialized and went about their daily lives. Schools, restaurants, and public spaces were all affected by the adjustments made during this period of quarantine.
This kind of economic disruption has happened many times during epidemics, going back to the Black Plague’s eruption in Europe during the 1300s.
“In some cases, systems collapsed and people died, or they moved, they migrated because they could no longer survive in the place where they were,” Robert Berkhofer, professor in Medieval European History at Western Michigan University, said.
Beginning in the mid-1300s, cases of Yersinia Pestis, commonly known as the Black Death or Black Plague, began to emerge along major trade routes throughout Europe. The disease was spread through flea bites, infected animals and – like COVID-19 – through respiratory droplets.
The Black Plague killed, by some estimates, approximately 40% to 50% of the population in Eurasia at the time.
“That's one person in two or maybe one person in three,” Berkhofer said. “The death toll was truly astounding,”
Europe’s infections crested between 1347 and 1351, followed by subsequent waves of infections.
Unlike today, the majority of people at the time were working in agriculture with only a small percentage of the population living in cities and towns.
“Less than 5%, maybe less than 2% of modern Americans, are involved in farming or agriculture in any significant way, and that means that we're sort of detached from the rhythms of the land which medieval people were not,” Berkhofer added.
This progressive movement towards cities and towns was, in part, driven by the Black Plague pandemic and people's search for survival.
This slowly resulted in urban areas becoming more congested as the disease accelerated rapidly, according to Berkhofer. To protect themselves from infections, doctors began to wear face masks made up of eye sockets of glass and leather headdresses with long, pointed beaks.
Likewise, from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic through 2023, the number of positive cases and deaths fluctuated, shaped by mask mandates, public gatherings during holidays, and the eventual plateau as vaccines became more widely accessible.
During the Black Plague, while many people were open to change, there remained a strong desire to return to a sense of normalcy, says Berkhofer — much like during the COVID pandemic, but on a much larger scale.
“I want to go back to the restaurants that I wanted to go to before the pandemic,” said Berkhofer. “Some of them aren’t there but the ones that are there I want to go back to and I want to spend money there so they’re going to stay there.”
Adapting to Survive COVID-19
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide and statewide quarantines threatened to severely harm economies. The familiar routines of daily life changed, and it wasn't just individuals who had to adjust during the pandemic; businesses also needed to adapt.
On March 23, 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order directing all Michigan businesses and operations to temporarily suspend in-person services for restaurants and any businesses deemed non-essential to sustain or protect lives.
Jermale Eddie was set to expand his restaurant Malamiah Juice Bar into their own storefront in downtown Grand Rapids after being eight years in business three months before coronavirus hit.
“We didn't really have a good understanding of everything – I don't think anyone did,” Eddie added. “But we knew that we weren't going to allow people to come into the doors and sit down.”
Amid the uncertainty, Eddie decided to pivot and began allowing customers to call in their orders and make the deliveries directly to them.
“I was able to do deliveries and that was going door to door. I would joke with people and say: “just your friendly neighborhood juice man. … I'd drop in on the door, ring the doorbell and leave,” Eddie said.
Initially, this pivot proved successful for Eddie, similar to how online food delivery services like DoorDash and UberEats saw a substantial increase in orders, especially after the mandate banning dine-in services. .
“There were people whose homes that I was able to make deliveries to who may not have even been customers originally, but they just heard of the work that we were doing for the community and decided to give us a try and kind of kept on purchasing as long as they could,” Eddie added.
This community support in turn allowed Eddie to help essential workers like childcare providers who were also struggling.
“So we utilized our wholesale pricing to purchase stuff we would never purchase, like canned tuna and chicken and milk and bread and Clorox bleach at cost … so we didn’t lose any money, besides time,” he said.
The Closing of a Business
As time went on, keeping the doors of his store open became increasingly difficult for Eddie; even after state mandates had lifted, prices remained high and he didn’t feel comfortable passing on these costs to his customers.
After months of trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic, Eddie made the decision to close Malamiah Juice Bar in June 2023 after being open for 10 years.
“For us, we felt like the consumer confidence in the economy changed,” Eddie said. “Buying habits changed, though we had a healthy product and a very good product, in some ways, perhaps we had a luxury product where we may not have been the very first thing on someone's list – had it not been for the pandemic, we could still be around.”
Today, Eddie has changed careers and is now helping other small businesses as the Director of Business Development at Spring GR, a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs.
“I'm able to use all of the things that I went through, successes and the failures to then share, encourage and speak with those who want to be business owners or those who are business owners today.”
Although Eddie never anticipated having to shut down his business, today he says he’s celebrating making it through.
“Being able to go outside, enjoy nature, to walk, to feel the breeze, to hear the waves and to just experience that freedom,” Eddie said. “That’s how I’m making it through, not how I made it through, but how I’m making it through.”
Hear our full conversations with Robert Berkhofer and Jermale Eddieon on today's podcast.
