POTTSVILLE, Pa. — Wheel restaurant and Pressed Coffee and Books are two popular spots in Pottsville. Right now, they're two of the few businesses that are actually allowed to stay open during the pandemic, but both have had to completely change the way they do things in order to meet state laws and safety guidelines.
"We're doing carry-out still currently. We're doing curbside pickup. That was an immediate change and then figuring out the delivery options," said Abby Weaver of Pressed Coffee and Books. "One day we weren't doing it, the next day we were doing it, so that was figuring out who's doing that and all those things, and then just making sure it's successful for people and also making sure we're constantly answering people's questions on Facebook or in our email or phones."
Both Pressed and Wheel relied almost solely on dine-in services but now delivery options are helping businesses stay afloat.
Delivery has become a crucial component to keeping their respective businesses afloat. They say their business strategies change almost daily, given the frequency in which things change because of the coronavirus.
"We didn't do delivery before; we are now doing it. Takeout only accounted for about 10 percent of our business prior, so to go from 10 percent to 100 percent being something different. You really need to plan and formulate a new business model in order to be successful … and on top of that, you need to retrain the whole team," said Savas Logothetides, Wheel owner.
Both Pressed and Wheel have been able to keep all of their employees despite changing the way they do business.
You can listen to both of these conversations in their entirety on a new episode of The Chase Down Podcast below.