Prevalent Throughout the Duration has been a Desire for No Regrets
As our skateboarding family was slowly being tasked with the reality that we would have to shutter all skateshops and skateparks I kept having this nagging feeling, No Regrets. When I say No Regrets what I mean is that little voice inside your head that drives you to overcome all obstacles. The little voice has been with you since skateboarding alone in your driveway. You have been developing the ability to overcome any challenge since the day you began your relationship with your skateboard. It’s the reason you still skateboard, film skateboarding, make edits, have a skateshop, or keep your skatepark open or maintain your local skatepark. As you age you can identify when it’s driving you and you can use it to your advantage. In fact, it’s the reason you believe every child should try skateboarding before age ten. In hopes, they might develop this life skill that will serve them well in their times of need.
Identify Your Strengths and Use Them to Your Advantage No Regrets!
So here we are day 30 of the City of Houston, Harris County Stay Home, Stay Safe campaign to fight the spread of COVID-19. Social distance, face masks, and gloves have become commonplace. Initially, my inner motivational speaker had me putting in 12-14 hours days shooting pics and batch image processing. Then it was on to the point of sale system rebuilding items and reconciling inventory now with images. After that your digging into the backend of your online store and assigning shipping rates and managing categories and how they will display. In the back of your mind, your thinking is this for real, will this all be worth it or will we be re-opening sooner than we think. Keep in mind, no one has ever experienced anything like this before but regardless I continued to find myself driven by the idea that, I personally didn’t want to have any Regrets!
We Wanted to Keep Anyone Who Wanted to Work Paid, but Eventually, We Found Ourselves Racing the Virus
We are not a huge staff here at Southside Skatepark and Southside Skateshop. Some of our staff were impacted very quickly by the news of the pandemic that was inevitably coming to Houston. Others were telling us they were willing to stay open regardless of the Harris County judges order to close all non-essential businesses. Then there were those that really needed their income to continue and were willing to work as long as they were able. If employees felt uncomfortable working their shifts they were allowed to not work. We were going to adhere to the judge’s order so we closed both locations at midnight March 23, 2020, as requested. Then we tasked ourselves with a laundry list of work to be done to pivot our retail to online-only sales. After that, we attacked multiple skatepark maintenance projects in an effort to provide hours to staff. As those projects came to a close the infected numbers were rising in Houston and for the safety of our employees, we opted to cease any more projects. Once again, No Regrets was always on our mind and factored into our decisions daily.
That’s About All I have to Share Regarding this Situation. We are Learning Along with All of You. We Hope to See You Soon!
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