Lyons businesses not feeling the impact of COVID-19

LYONS, Ga. (WTOC) - Businesses in the City of Lyons have been described by city leaders as resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, no businesses have had to shut down because of the impact.

The Lyons City Manager, Jason Hall says he’s seen more shopping than ever and Friday nights downtown are consistently busy.

Over the last six months, businesses all over have felt the impact of the pandemic in some form. While many have had to shut their doors, this hasn’t been the case in Lyons.

“None of them have shut down. They may have changed hours or changed the way they do business,” Hall said.

Hall says the city couldn’t help businesses financially because of their budget. However, customer loyalty has been huge.

“Our community is very supportive of our local businesses and they knew that this crisis was going to affect those businesses and I think they came out to support our businesses.”

Cookie Boss Bakery & Sandwich Shop says the community is what has helped them tremendously. The shop opened in February right before the pandemic hit, but owner Melissa Hall says business has grown since.

“We have been blessed. I mean we haven’t slowed down one bit as a matter of fact our business has picked up," said Melissa Hall.

The shop caters for events, many of which have had to cancel over the last few months. Although Hall says even if they canceled their event, the customer never canceled on them.

“They would still come get their food or they would still get their cakes.”

The Lyons Main Street program has been diligent in checking in on businesses often. City officials say they’re glad their town doesn’t have to rely on tourism because if so, they would have certainly seen more of an impact.

“Tourism dwindling away has not affected our businesses as much as it would in Savannah or Atlanta or some of those other cities that probably rely a lot more heavily on tourism.”

The city says business owners have done a good job of being smart about how they handle safety protocols.

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