KENT ISLAND, Md. — The Gifted Crab on Kent Island is a popular shop especially around the holidays.
Susan Darling is the manager here and she has seen the busy times; with 2020 and the pandemic, those crowds have disappeared. Now, if they had a line at the door, they would have trouble handling that.
With customers gone, so is the staff. Scheduling is always tricky, but going from 10 workers down to four makes it easy. Easy is not what they need, what they need is customers.
Running a small business is difficult, even in the best of times. During this pandemic, simple remedial business tasks have become monumental.
"It's very difficult because we don't know what this season is going to bring," Darling said. "Whether we are going to have shoppers on the weekends like we did last year. Are they just not going to shop, are they going to shop on line and not come to a local store. We're hoping they come to a local store."
Just one of their many hopes and dreams. Adjusting hours, social distancing, masks are all new for them. At the Gifted Crab, they are even trying new business plans.
"We do have web orders now that we did not have before," Darling said.
With such an impact on their business, trying to find the best strategies is over overwhelming, sometimes you just have to rely on something else.
"We just have to say a prayer and hope it works out for us," she said.
