Tough as nails

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This article was published 13/02/2021 (1926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

These days, Hung Chau and his mother Hoa Nguyen will take any good news that comes their way.

For weeks on end, their family-owned nail salon had been shuttered amid stringent COVID-19 restrictions in the province. It was hard for the Winnipeggers to come to terms with being labelled a non-essential service, and thus forced to close during code red lockdowns.

To them, their little storefront on Regent Avenue has always been a safe and essential haven for customers who want to spend time alone in their thoughts, or chat with a familiar face.

“It’s more than getting your nails done, or for us to know our customers by name — for a lot of people, it’s an important necessity,” said Chau.

On Friday, the provincial government allowed restaurants, gyms, tattoo parlours and nail salons to reopen at 25 per cent capacity. The new public-health orders will remain in place for at least three weeks.

That means Nails 4 You, Chau and Nguyen’s brainchild in the city for the last two decades, has finally had some good news. And not just them, but their regular customers, too.

From early bookings for paraffin waxes and gel-polish manicures to scheduling appointments for acrylic nails or hot stone pedicures, phones quickly started ringing at the salon after the province gave them the all-clear to open.

On the first day of reopening, Chau said their clients’ excitement was palpable.

“We usually have them dry out their nails in the waiting area,” he said, translating for his mom, who spoke in Vietnamese.

“Because of the capacity limits though, we couldn’t have many customers inside at a time. And that’s why, as they were waiting for their nails to dry, they wanted to have others come in and get started.

“It was such a funny thing to see customers willing to wait outside in the freezing cold with sandals, just because they wanted others to also experience this all.”

Nguyen and Chau admit, it hasn’t been easy.

“We’re not something that can be moved completely online, so it was definitely very hard,” said Chau.

First, their salon closed during the 2020 spring lockdown. Then, they closed their doors again in the fall after a summer of somewhat normal business.

With every closure, they had to furlough their staff and figure out a way to make ends meet. And with every reopening, they had to introduce new protocols such as temperature checks and deep disinfections between customer visits.

Now, Nails 4 You is facing a struggle to accommodate work schedules for all 10 members of its staff, with mandated capacity limits in place.

“We’re so happy to be open again, even if it is limited,” said Chau. “But certainly, it’s difficult to try to get everyone some work because, yes, everyone wants to go back to work, but that’s just not really possible.”

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimates only 59 per cent of businesses are fully open in Manitoba.

While 47 per cent are fully staffed, only 31 per cent have had normal sales.

“Even with additional businesses set to partially open, we know getting back to normal is still months away for most,” said Jonathan Alward, CFIB’s director for the Prairie region.

While the Manitoba government has allowed most businesses to reopen at limited capacity, it has yet to extend any provincial aid or assistance.

“It’s critical for the government to at least immediately renew the Bridge Grant to help those businesses impacted by restrictions,” said Alward.

Twitter: @temurdur

Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca