OKC Small Businesses Adapt To New State Of Emergency Mandates

Restaurants and bars in Oklahoma City closed their dining rooms overnight and can now only serve drive thru or carry out.

The change was ordered by Mayor David Holt on Tuesday, March 17 as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to grow across the state.

Places like bars that don't serve food had to close Tuesday at 5 p.m.

Now small businesses across the city are having to adapt, but many owners, like Katie Morgan at Katiebug's Sips and Sweets, said they saw this coming.  

"We started prepping for this about a week a a half ago," said Morgan. 

Even before Mayor Holt adjusted the state of emergency declaration, Morgan decided it was time to find a new way to serve customers.

"We just felt like people were congregating too much to make it safe, so we decided to close the restaurant and make it drive through or pick up only," said Morgan. 

Just like life around the business, at the sweet shop things are changing.

"We limited our items," said Morgan. "We luckily have many beautiful windows in our store that we can open up."

Morgan and her staff are finding the silver lining by having fun with their menu. The shop is serving Netflix and quarantine boxes, cupcake and cookie decorating kits and even giving out quarantine bingo cards. 

She hopes the creativity she learned from running her business as a food truck before opening up her brick and mortar draws people in and helps protect her business. 

"If you want to live in a world six months from now that has the small businesses you love now, its really important to keep that in mind when making purchases," said Morgan. 

The Excutive Director of the Independent Shopkeepers Association, Cléo Rajon said this is a make or break time for not just Katiebug's but pretty much all local small businesses. 

"They are having to come up with really creative ways, so we don't wake up two to three moths from now and our local shop community is not there anymore," said Rajon. 

Morgan said she's fully prepared to have to close her doors, but she's just taking it day by day. 

The Independent Shopkeepers Association has a portal with a link to local businesses online stores

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