Through a chilly winter for Vermont businesses, The Savoy Theater managed to stay open.
The small, independent theater, with a focus on indie films and documentaries, reopened in September and closed for only four weeks during the holiday season, owner James O’Hanlon said.
It’s a rare exception to the many movie theaters that closed, and stayed closed, for the majority of the pandemic. But, he said, “I’m not seeing big numbers” of patrons.
“My crowd is very reticent to return,” he said. “I still have people that are like, ‘When are you going to open?’ and I’m like, ‘I’ve been open.’”
The Montpelier theater is not the only business struggling, despite the reopening of the state’s economy as vaccinations rise and cases drop.
Data collected from cellphones, provided by the Department of Financial Regulation, shows that on the whole, business activity is rising. The median activity for all sectors is at 110% of the 2019 baseline, meaning people are going out to shops and other businesses 10% more than they did that year.
But that median covers a broad variation by sector. Lawn and garden stores, for example, are drawing customers at 188% of baseline, meaning they’re seeing nearly twice as many shoppers. Nursing homes, drug stores and building materials dealers all had higher-than-average activity.
Far below the rest of the pack, with less than 67% of their normal activity, are hotels, museums, spectator sports and movie theaters, which had only 31% of their pre-pandemic traffic as of May.
Most store traffic has returned to baseline or above, with the exception of clothing stores. Fast food restaurants rose above the baseline, at 131% of average, but full-service restaurants are at only 86% of average.
Betsy Bishop, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, said the data confirmed what she has seen throughout the pandemic: a total shutdown in spring 2020, followed by a slow reopening over the summer and fall, then a tightening as cases worsened in November.
Now, people are booking weddings and becoming comfortable with going out, she said.
But she wants Vermonters to understand: “Being open does not equal being OK.”
“So many businesses have such a downturn that there is that debt. There are bills that are due from that period of time,” she said. “If you find yourself back at that 2019 summer activity, well, that’s great. But you have to be even more above that to make back what you had.”
And businesses need employees, a struggle during the state’s staffing shortage. She said she had just heard from a cafe owner who was struggling to keep her doors open because of low staffing.
“She told me, ‘What am I supposed to do?’” Bishop said.
She blamed multiple factors, including unemployment benefits, Vermonters choosing to retire, a long-term population drain and a dearth of child care.
“There’s not just one thing impacting the workforce, and many of those things are hard,” she said.
The chamber has also advocated for more funding to go to business owners, despite the grants and loans given out in 2020.
“The need has been demonstrated to be huge,” she said.
The Savoy Theater was among the businesses that benefited from grants, allowing O’Hanlon to keep screens running even when few customers appeared. He also attributed their relative success to their unique nature as an indie theater, since bigger theaters are more dependent on distributor demands.
Still, he estimated the business has had 67% revenue loss during the pandemic. Even that significant figure placed him in the lowest category of loss when he recently applied for a grant for theaters. The highest category is more than 90% loss.
It’s also telling that many theaters VTDigger found across the state are still closed or have limited listings.
Among the closed theaters are Roxy Cinemas in Burlington, Palace 9 in South Burlington, Paramount Twin Cinema in Barre, City Cinema in Newport, the Welden Theatre in St. Albans and the Big Picture Theater in Waitsfield.
Stowe Cinema, Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Essex Cinemas, Bijou Cineplex 4 in Morrisville and the Capitol Theater in Montpelier have at least some showings open.
After closing for 15 months, Capitol Theater opened in June for weekend screenings, playing bigger-budget hits than The Savoy. Fred Bashara, owner of the theater, said it felt like the right time to start.
“People were asking about it, and people were happy and content coming in,” he said. Even though vaccinated people didn’t have to wear a mask, “people sat down and separated themselves.”
The theater cost thousands of dollars a month even when it was closed, he said, because of heating and other overhead costs.
The movie industry didn’t do them any favors, either. Many films were pulled from theater distribution or delayed because of the pandemic. “We can’t operate seven screens with just one movie,” he said.
Distribution difficulties are one reason Big Picture in Waitsfield has remained closed, said Claudia Becker, co-owner of the theater. “It’s gonna be hard to get content that’s not already on Amazon or Netflix,” she said.
The movie theater has a connected restaurant that also has remained mostly closed, except when the Paycheck Protection Program allowed Becker to run small takeout days. They’re planning to reopen the restaurant in July, but the theater itself is still on hold.
The financial burden of the theater was unbelievable, she said. It was also rough for her to lose the employees that felt like a family and to see how the loss of the theater affected the local community, she said.
“It’s a playground. It’s a beer garden. It’s a restaurant. It’s an art gallery. It’s a music venue. It was the hub of so many things,” she said. “And to have that fall away was certainly very noticeable and hard.”
She said Vermonters need to come out and support these businesses that have been “hanging by their fingernails” waiting for a chance to reopen.
“The business owners have really braved the storm because they believe in what they’re doing,” she said. “So the support of the Vermont community now that we’re reopening is super important.”
