Greg Jones, 36, said he and his wife, Angela, who own the Synergy Fitness gym in Amherst, New York, near Buffalo, already have had to dip into their retirement savings. He isn’t holding out much hope for the relief package.
“I am pretty pessimistic on it actually benefiting us,” Jones said. “In my opinion, it’s going to be too late.”
Even after laying off all seven of his employees, Jones figures he has at most a month left before he won’t have enough capital to restart his business, after meeting his family’s personal expenses and the business’s rent, utilities and equipment loan payments.
Already, 50,000 retail stores have shut in just over a week across the country, putting more than 600,000 workers on furlough, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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