Few local economies have been hit harder by coronavirus-induced closures than the Bay Area’s. And as the pandemic rages on, more of those temporary closures are turning into permanent ones, according to a new report this week.
Yelp, the company that connects you with local restaurants, bars and other businesses, released its second-quarter consumer interest report Wednesday, which showed the San Francisco and San Jose metros areas with two of the four highest per-capita closure rates in the country. The total number of boarded-up businesses was only higher in Los Angeles and New York than in San Francisco.
The survey tallied businesses in the restaurant, bar/nightlife, retail, beauty and fitness sectors that have been marked closed on Yelp and verified by the company between March 1 and July 10.
More than 2,000 businesses in the San Francisco metro area, which encompasses much of the Peninsula, East Bay and Marin County, have closed for good in that time, according to Yelp’s data, while another 3,000 remain temporarily shuttered. Combined, only Los Angeles (11,300) and New York (9,500) have more, while Chicago has seen slightly more permanent closures (2,400) but fewer are temporarily closed (2,000).
The only harder-hit metro areas on a per-capita basis were the tourist havens of Honolulu and Las Vegas, where 17.8 and 17.4 of every 1,000 storefronts have closed, either permanently (7.9/1,000 in Honolulu; 8.2/1,000 in Vegas) or temporarily. In San Francisco, 7.3 of every 1,000 businesses have closed permanently and 10.5 per 1,000 are temporarily closed; San Jose’s respective rates are 6.2 and 10.5 per 1,000 businesses.
“As U.S. cities struggle to balance reopening their local economies and avoid becoming the next COVID-19 hotspot, we’ve seen U.S. business closure data reflect an unstable economy,” Yelp vice president of data science Justin Norman said in a release. “Cities such as San Francisco and Honolulu, which have had some of the nation’s strictest stay-at-home orders, are now seeing the highest numbers of closures relative to the number of businesses in their respective cities.”
The 5,100 total closures in San Francisco was more than all but five states in the U.S., and more businesses had closed permanently in California than had either temporarily and permanently closed, combined, in any other state.
As of July 10, there were 14,100 businesses in California that did not plan to reopen again and another 15,300 that were closed but still hanging on. The 29,400 total closures was three times more than the next state, Texas, where 6,500 businesses were permanently closed and another 4,700 remained temporarily closed. Both states are also the two most populous in the country, California with about 39.5 million residents and Texas with about 29 million.
The Bay Area was the first region in the country to implement a stay-at-home order in mid-March, followed soon after by the nation’s first statewide mandate. Parts of the state had begun to reopen, but as California’s outbreak continues to grows larger, restrictions are being put back in place.
Those in the bar and restaurant industry have been warning of the impending apocalypse if there isn’t an influx of cash soon. Bars were the first victim of the Bay Area’s original shutdown order and have remained shuttered ever since; restaurants have struggled with the permitting process to open outdoors. Those that do reopen have seen a small slice of the revenue from the before times.
“There is going be no restaurant that survives this unless you own your own building, you’re part of a national chain or you have a trillion dollar tech backer,” Glenn Kaplan, who co-owns the Oakland bar Make Westing, said last week.
Indeed, more restaurants have already closed permanently than businesses in any other sector, according to the Yelp report. A total of 26,160 have boarded up across the country since the pandemic began, including 15,770 permanently — a number that increased 23% since last month. It was the only sector surveyed with more shuttered businesses not planning to reopen (60%) than those that were.
The retail sector has seen a similar number of closures but fewer permanent ones. There have also been about 26,000 businesses to close in that industry but 12,454 permanent closures. In the month since Yelp’s last report, 1,544 stores had reopened — but 2,814 had also closed for good.
Although there were fewer businesses closed nationwide, a larger share of them had become permanent. Permanent closures accounted for 55% of all shuttered businesses nationwide, compared to 41% a month ago. In all, there were 132,500 total closures as of July 10 — 33% fewer than at the height of shutdown orders in April, when Yelp estimated 177,000 businesses had closed.
