After 18 months of preparation, Auburn Oil Co. Booksellers finally opened its doors on October 26, 2019. With its wide windows looking out on Taco Mama diners, the tables and shelves laden with books and gifts, and the scent of coffee wafting through the room, the shop quickly found a place in the hearts of its Auburn customers.

The Chamber of Commerce book club members became regulars, the holiday season was a success and the school system had several events booked for March. Angela Wilhite, the store’s manager, felt the company was finally gaining traction in the community outside the school crowd when it all came to a halt as the coronavirus pandemic swept across America.

Although the official call for retail stores to close in Alabama didn’t come until March 27, Auburn Oil Co. started considering it all the way back to the weekend of March 9. Before the state said it had to, the company closed the store front and switched to pick-up only by March 19. It was the best decision for their customers, but that didn’t ease the heartbreak.

“We’ve all had to take a moment,” Wilhite said. “It’s hard because we don’t know how this is going to affect Auburn and the people in our families, and it’s hard because we don’t know how this is going to affect the store.”

Now, they’re just praying and reading and trying to stay relevant.

Like Auburn Oil Co., the city’s business community was thriving despite the volatile nature of a community controlled by class schedules and football season. But the coronavirus pandemic is nothing like the drop in business caused by a bad football season.

“Through the years, we’ve had a lot of practice at this,” City Manager James Buston said. “Now that this has hit us, all of that is out the window. Now it's more of a, ‘How far below our projections will our income be?’ ”

It’s quite the turnaround for a city that had hopes and expectations similar to Wilhite’s excitement for Auburn Oil. Co. Before the pandemic, the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau had been looking at least a nine percent increase in revenue from last year, vice president Robyn Bridges said. City revenue was trending upwards according to City Manager James Buston, and the President Lolly Steiner said the Chamber of Commerce’s membership, which consists of over 1,000 small business owners, was happy and growing. Auburn Ventures, who has eight real estate properties in the area, was at almost 100 percent occupancy according to COO Pavan Reddy.

Even the summer months were projecting to be good. Although city revenue is typically lower when school isn’t in session, Auburn Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce hadn’t seen a drop over the break in years thanks to the university’s mini semesters and the number of events the city hosted.

With Auburn University as the largest employer, Auburn’s been pretty “recession proof,” Steiner said. The university and its alumni make an annual $5.6 billion economic contribution to the state, a university statement said.

“That engine is always moving, always running,” Steiner said. “Well. This is something different.”

Everyone is bracing for a hit, but no one can even begin to project how bad it’s going to be. A common comparison is to the 2008 financial crisis — which Auburn weathered well — but Auburn Professor Alan Seals says it’s not comparable. It’s worse, way worse.

Seals, a labor economist, explained that 2008 was about one asset bubble popping whereas this is an entire country grinding to a halt. There was a quick fix in 2008, and when its effect on unemployment showed towards the end of 2009, the national unemployment rate shot to 10 percent with somewhere from 500,000-600,000 new unemployment claims each week. In the last two weeks of March, alone, there were 10 million new claims.

Auburn, like many schools across the country, closed its campus. Students, faculty and staff have moved their work online. All of Auburn’s campus events, including tours and visits, have been canceled, too. The school is still accepting students and the admissions office is available to answer questions by phone or email, Auburn said in a statement, but there is a lot of uncertainty with how high school seniors will be able to finish their schooling. Auburn University said it “will not disadvantage any student based on these circumstances and are committed to working with their high school.”

Without school events, Auburn has fewer tourists. Without students, about 3/7ths of Auburn’s population is gone. That means fewer customers to support businesses, less sales tax revenue and fewer occupational license fees for the city.

Relying on sales tax has always made city revenue hard to predict, and being based in a college town adds to that. Revenue can go up or down based on how well Auburn’s football team does, how many home games it hosts, where the Iron Bowl is held that year and if another sport, like Auburn basketball, does well and brings in more tourists. Many businesses look at trends moving forward, and everything pointed to Auburn basketball performing well this season. The unexpected end to the season affected more than just athletes, fans and the leagues.

“As soon as they canceled March Madness, that affected our business because we had already ordered for that weekend for the SEC championship,” David Esposito, the owner of Halftime Bar and Grill, Esposito’s and Auburn Draft House said.

The effect on the city’s revenue won’t be clear until at least June after the tax filing date was pushed back. However, Buston said it could easily be a 30 percent decline. To see the city budget, click here.

With people shut inside, Auburn small businesses are taking a hit. Many of its restaurants were able to adapt by offering delivery and curbside pickup at first, although a number of the non-chains have closed. The ones that have remained open have been forced to lay off employees with less workers needed for curbside. After losing a large portion of its customers when the students left, Bridges encouraged people to support their local restaurants.

“Stay out of the grocery stores, quit buying up everything and go support your restaurants,” Bridges said. “We want everybody to get out and do that every day. Stay in your car. They'll hand it to you through the window. You never have to touch another human being. You can practice all of the guidelines for social distancing, but still support these local restaurateurs and caterers.”

The retail industry in Auburn has a much tougher path ahead of it. Many of the boutiques cater specifically to the students, and while some have online stores offering delivery, the majority of their customers have left town. The businesses without websites have been at a huge disadvantage, and Steiner said some have had to close temporarily just to get a website up and running.

Small businesses have been the focus, but chains will struggle too, Reddy said, especially if everyone is focused on only keeping the small businesses alive. Auburn Ventures has several chains among its tenants, like Domino’s Pizza and Insomnia Cookies at its 191 College property. Chains’ branches can be locally owned by someone in the community, and they hire and employ local workers.

All of this creates a domino effect because if shops and restaurants don’t make enough money, they won’t be able to pay rent. The property owners, like Auburn Ventures, then won’t be able to pay the mortgage and the banks will be affected. Fortunately, Seals said the financial institutions in America are strong right now, which should help the nation get through.

And if businesses go down, the tourism industry goes down. Bridges thinks hotels should be able to bounce back easily, but she’s not as sure about the restaurants and stores that are partners to the industry. Shopping and eating are a huge part of tourism and a big reason people travel.

“It's completely realistic to think that many of those businesses may not even be here to come back to,” Bridges said. “So while we are incredibly hopeful and trying to stay positive, it is a very real scare that our industry will be much more than temporarily devastated by the shutdown.”

Esposito, whose three restaurants are located in downtown Auburn, has already temporarily closed everything but Auburn Draft House. A lot of the other family-owned restaurants around him have closed down, too. He’s taking it day-by-day when deciding about Auburn Draft House, which already has shortened hours. Part of the problem is it’s better for many of the employees to file for unemployment because they’ll receive more money than if they kept working in a restaurant whose sales are down 20 percent. Luckily, Esposito’s landlords have been very understanding and flexible, but they’re all waiting for the government aid.

“Our biggest hope is that we know that we’ll get through this,” Esposito said. “It's just a matter of time. We just need to get there. That's all we're looking at. So we're just in survival mode.”

Two other major industries that could take a big hit are the auto and aerospace industries, according to Buston. South Korean company Shinhwa Group has a manufacturing plant in Auburn that builds parts for Hyundai and Kia. Auburn also has a number of companies that build planes. But few people are buying cars or planes right now, and many of the auto manufacturing plants Auburn companies supply have announced they’re temporarily idling. Some have shut down completely while others have had to furlough many of their employees.

Big picture, Auburn as a community should be able to weather through the pandemic. The city has always kept a tight budget, Buston said, and it has a strong rainy day fund. If the most dire predictions came true, the city would have to give up some of its bigger projects, but it would continue to provide services like water and trash pickup through the end of the year.

The Tourism Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and city government have also taken action to try to keep businesses afloat. Last Thursday, Auburn City Council passed a resolution to create an interest subsidy program, the Working Capital Loan Interest Subsidy Program, to help small businesses. It should infuse up to $4 million of working capital and support over 160 businesses. The city also is not penalizing late water bills, so people don’t have to worry about their water turning off. They don’t have to worry about paying for parking downtown either, which will hopefully encourage more people to take advantage of to-go services.

The Tourism Bureau used some of its reserves to pay to feed restaurant staffs for the first week of the pandemic. Bridges is also working with state legislators to put together relief packages for restaurants and small, independently owned hotels. The Chamber of Commerce is using the money from its membership fees to pay different restaurants to feed healthcare workers at the testing site and on the ICU floor.

“Right now, we're looking at providing a little source of income to our small business owners and a source of relief to those heroes,” Steiner said.

The “Auburn family” has proven to be real in this time of need, Reddy said. Competitors are helping competitors. Customers are buying gift cards as investments. Restaurants are providing food despite their own struggles. People are buying books for nurses. Places like Taco Mama, have provided food for their neighbors like Auburn Oil Co.

Auburn has brought the community together, and it’s what will help it through.

The university is the largest employer in the city, which puts it in a position to come out stronger than ever, Seals said. Other universities may have to close, which would allow Auburn to emerge as a bigger player in a smaller market. The university will also make it easier for the community to receive federal funding.

Amidst the rumors and predictions, everyone from government workers down to the shop workers and baristas are taking it day-by-day. Businesses have had to get creative and band together, all things Steiner says will make them stronger in the long run.

As Wilhite goes about her new daily routine, putting together book orders for people to send to nurses, washing her hands a lot and reading for stress relief, she’s nervous—very nervous. She and her coworkers love working for Auburn Oil Co. and want it to survive. But she’s hopeful.

“I’m confident that when all this is over, we can jump right back into it," Wilhite said.

That’s not just optimism, Steiner said. It’s a possibility because Auburn Oil Co. filled a need in the community. And now people have more time to read than ever. Her personal recommendation? Sean Dietrich’s Will the Circle be Unbroken?: A Memoir of Learning to Believe You’re Gonna be Okay.

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