ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Opening a business during the middle of a pandemic is no small task.
T&T Asian Foods Market first bought their building to open their store in 2017.
Thao Dang was finally read to open her doors this March and then COVID-19 hit.
Her and her husband pushed off the opening, but by June they decided to move forward.
“In June we thought you know we're just going to have a soft opening.”
Because three months of paying for refrigerators and a building starts to add up.
“We had to get it up and running to be able to pay for the expenses.”
The grocery store offers the Quad Cities all sorts of oriental food as well as other ethnic options.
There is a freezer section, fresh meat and fruits as well as drinks and canned goods.
On top of that, the store does take out orders.
“If it’s ever a Friday, Saturday night and you don't feel like cooking we're just a phone call away.”
With region two of Illinois, the one that includes the Quad Cities, the only one left in Illinois without restricted mitigations, it seems to be the ever-looming threat.
Dang saying even though they’re mainly a grocery store they worry about the set back.
“We still worry have worries about this pandemic. We need a lot of support from our customers so if our customers come from where they are not doing well financially that in a way affects us.
Ten of the twenty counties in region two have a positivity rate above the 8% warning threshold.
The region itself had its first official day above the 8% intervention threshold Friday.
Governor Pritzker earlier Friday warning of a reversal.
“Barring an unlikely reversal of that trend, two more days at or above that 8% intervention threshold will bring Region 2 into mitigations in the coming days.”
Local health officials say the possibility of the set back is no surprise.
Rock Island County Health Department administrator Nita Ludwig says it’s been a worry for months.
“I would say we have been trying to ring the alarm bell for quite some time now.”
For a new business like T&T it’s a blowback because of the domino effect of the pandemic.
They want customers to be able to come in and not feel scared of the restrictions.
Dang is thankful though that even with stricter mitigations they will be able to stay open.
It isn’t lost on her however, that the pandemic is affecting everyone, not just their store.
“Everybody is in it together. It’s a difficult time.”