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How the pandemic has affected local businesses, and why you should care

Author: Esther Lindley ('24)


COVID-19: it’s affected all of us. That effect has manifested in different ways for everyone: for some in anxiety about the state of the world, for others in missed opportunities to spend time with friends and family. Recently the pandemic’s effect has appeared in another three weeks of online school for secondary students at BAIS. Clearly, students know how it’s affected schools, but how has it affected local businesses? In interviews with two businesses in the Bandung area, it’s clear that COVID-19 has impacted businesses differently depending on their specific circumstances.


Interestingly, COVID-19 has actually yielded positive effects in some businesses. Yonathan and Christina Chandra, a young married couple, who are the owners of Tenda di Bawah Bintang, Ruang Lapang, and the newly opened Kala Cemara, began Tenda di Bawah Bintang, their first start up, in late 2020, and it has been thriving.


Photo Courtesy of Nur Indah/Google Maps


The Chandra's business involves providing food and entertainment in the form of outdoor cafes, an idea formed during the pandemic to be more “COVID friendly” since COVID-19 cases contracted outdoors make up for less than 1% of overall cases. Yonathan and Christina first found inspiration to start Tenda di Bawah Bintang when Christina became pregnant, prompting the two to become more independent. Finding available empty fields for sale, they bought them planning to set up an outdoor picnic. That first idea of outdoor picnicking then manifested into an outdoor theater, prompted by a visiting drive-in movie theater, finally transforming into what it is today: outdoor cafes.


By taking COVID-friendly measures in operating their business such as supplying hand sanitizer, disinfectant, and X-ing tables and chairs in order to encourage social distancing, their outdoor business has become known as a safe place to hangout during the pandemic. As a result, the Chandra's business has been even more prosperous than they could have hoped for when founding it in 2020.


For the most part, though, COVID-19 has produced negative consequences for businesses. These effects are visible in The BAIS Times’ interview with business owners Dan and Becky Truloff.


In contrast to the Chandra’s business, Dan and Becky Truloff’s business, Down to Earth, was not created to function under COVID-19 conditions. In 2018, the Truloffs learned about a restaurant called Cafe Oz and decided to move to Indonesia, as they believed this could be the perfect opportunity to serve the community. They renovated the restaurant, renamed it Down to Earth, and things were going well until COVID hit.


During the spring of 2020, Down to Earth began experiencing financial strains as a result of the pandemic. Due to government-mandated lockdowns on Bandung and Jakarta, they faced a significant reduction in income from sales, were forced to reduce employees' working hours, and even let go of a few of their workers.


Further pressures pushed themselves upon Down to Earth in the form of fluctuating pandemic regulations for business hours, increased government health regulations, and ever-changing staff rosters. Despite said circumstances, Becky Truloff noted to The BAIS Times in their interview,


“One positive throughout the pandemic is that we have had many opportunities to care for and show love towards our staff.”


Unfortunately, challenges posed by COVID eventually became too much for Down to Earth

to bear, and the business closed in January 2022.


Photo Courtesy of Justin Stanford | Families Eating at Down to Earth on its Closing Day


For restaurants, cafes, shops, kiosks, and so on, each worker employed relies on the sales needed to sustain the business, but because of COVID protocols some of those businesses have gone weeks and months with lowered sales. Because of the very protocols put in place to protect everyone from contracting COVID, many business owners have gone without money to pay their employees. Those same workers may have experienced unemployment, debt, sickness, and so forth during the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean people should reject the safety precautions put in place by the government to protect its citizens.


Tenda di Bawah Bintang provides an example for how to maintain COVID precautions along with a fun, appealing atmosphere for customers. Because what was so appealing about Tenda di Bawah Bintang for those fresh out of quarantine was the safety of it: the idea of things being normal again without the damaging effects of living as if COVID doesn’t exist. Amazingly, the Chandra’s have found the perfect balance to provide safety without taking away from consumers’ satisfaction and entertainment.


The economic issue with what business during COVID-19 should look like reflects a deeper issue in our day to day lives in the aftermath, and in some locations, the relapse of a global pandemic. Regrettably, the subject becomes even more complicated considering the possibility of COVID-19 becoming endemic, which is when an infection is constantly maintained at around the same level in a population. But even if (or more accurately when) COVID becomes endemic, the negative effects of the disease, hospitalization and death for example, wouldn’t disappear: it is instead far more likely they would lessen over time. COVID's possible path to endemicity and the medical safeties of businesses raises the question: what should we do: continue to stay at home, or go out, spend money, socialize? Well, Tenda di Bawah Bintang is a unique example that shows how we can support the economy and live our lives while still being safe.


For the workers at Tenda di Bawah Bintang/Ruang Lapang and Down to Earth, their jobs provided them with stability and financial protection during the unpredictable past two going on three years. Working at these smaller businesses, the relationship between proprietor, or owner, and employee is a more personal one compared to a business like McDonalds. Meaning, that if they flourish, employees will often see and experience resulting benefits up close. For example, one way the Chandras adapted during COVID-19 was for their workers to receive wages weekly rather than by longer time periods. Yonathan and Christina, who both appreciate close relationships with their workers, understand that the pandemic one week might be stable, but the next, certain sectors could shut down under PPKM, heavily impacting individuals and families financially.


Because the Chandras manage small businesses that have experienced positive growth, they are able to make changes like the one outlined above quickly to personally support their employees. But if business starts struggling, like in Down to Earth’s case, that positive ability to quickly and directly affect those who rely on them financially can turn painful.


Down to Earth and Tenda di Bawah Bintang/Ruang Lapang don’t just function as examples to make a point on our response to COVID-19, they also showcase the responsibility of the readers, along with this writer, the editors, and so on, to support small businesses, the majority of which are struggling with lowered revenue because of the pandemic. If, and because, there are COVID safety measures in place to encourage economic stimulation, we should take advantage of those precautions to help our community.


Becky Truloff, in that hope for renewed economic stability, stated:

“God has promised to never leave us or forsake us, so we just have to continue on remembering that He has a plan and all things will eventually work out for the good; once we get there, we can begin to dream again.”


Being followers of Christ, we have a responsibility to Him to attend to humanity as a reminder of God’s ceaselessly enduring love, so with that responsibility in mind, we should hold the Truloff and Chandras’ sincere love for their workers as standard for our approach to economic participation. Though engaging in the consumption of goods and services can become an insignificant, mundane activity, through understanding the human side to businesses, or in this case restaurants, which a large percentage of us deal with daily, we can live lives of mission, thus fulfilling our responsibilities in Christ.


So, “whatever you do, in word or deed,” be it homework, talking with friends, or ordering from a nearby restaurant, “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (English Standard Version, Colossians 3:17)

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