Liat Alon has been one of many to experience the negative effects of the COVID19 crisis first-hand.
The 40-year-old small business owner from Los Angeles, California, has only owned her café, Melrose Bite, for three years, but it’s already become her baby.
Despite being nine months pregnant, Liat threw herself into managing her café- but when the first lockdown began and social distancing rules came into place, her business, like many others, began to suffer.
“We started seeing the effects from COVID fairly quickly,” Liat told Shareably. “Across the street from us is a large public high school. So when the high school closed down, we lost all the students and staff. Then when travel was banned, we lost tourists.”
“It started with losing our bulk of sales which was through high school students, then teachers, then tourists, then foot traffic. Since indoor and outdoor seating were banned as well, we relied solely on online orders. The only problem with online orders, is they take 30% commission from each order.”
While many others were forced to give up, Liat was determined to keep her business going.
Every morning, the café would open its doors at 9 am, in the hopes that the day would bring in lots of customers. But heart-breakingly, the café’s orders continued to decline.
“Staying open was the biggest struggle when we started to lose customers,” Liat said. “Although it’s only been 3 years, I put my blood sweat and tears into this place. Seeing the restaurant decline every month was killing me.”
When Liat opened Melrose Bite, she was a single mother to 3 children. She grew her business all by herself, and it had come along so much since the beginning.
Now she was watching it crumble before her very eyes.
As Liat’s pregnancy progressed, she decided that she needed a partner to help with the running of the café, and her good friend Natan Hassan was more than willing to help. But as Natan worked on the store front, behind the scenes, Liat was frantically checking the cafe’s earnings from her phone.
“At 14:00 in the afternoon I noticed we had only made $2.00!! I couldn’t believe it. I jumped off the sofa and rushed over to the café,” Liat recalled. “Our days have been bad, but this was just brutal. By the time I got to the café, we were at $25.00. I was literally pacing back and forth.”
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“I’m not one to ask for help, but this was a matter of making a last minute decision, “do I shut my doors now and take a loss? Or do I get over my ego and ask for help?”
Putting her ego aside, Liat decided to share her fears over on her Instagram page. She first posted a video asking if people could help spread the word of her business.
Next, Liat shared a post on her feed that would touch people’s hearts all over the world.
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Liat took a picture of the register at the café showing the day’s earnings- a mere $25.00. She had no idea that it would end up becoming to popular.
“Later that day, my sister phoned me and told me her WhatsApp was blowing up with people sharing my photo!” Liat recalled. “I opened Instagram and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had hundreds of message requests. Tons of people that tagged, liked, shared the photo, and I had gained 100 new followers!”
She added:
“And this was just Instagram- Facebook was a whole other monster! Someone had started a fundraiser, people were telling me “get ready, tomorrow you’ll be busy.” I called my business partner and expressed my shock! I told him “send me a shopping list, we’re gonna be busy tomorrow.”
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It’s now been a few days since Liat’s picture went viral, but she’s still trying to process the kind actions from people all over the world.
A single mother made a $600 purchase- and she needs this money more than I,” Liat said. “Donations were coming from as far as the UK, and I had people placing online orders from New York and sending to relatives in Los Angeles! Our community is much larger than just our surrounding cities. It’s worldwide!”
She added:
“What’s most amazing is my children are witnessing this as well. They haven’t seen me busy like this since March! It’s truly a Chanukah Miracle.”
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Liat’s call for help represents a big issue that’s occurring all over America. Small businesses need help, and if we’re still fortunate enough to be in a stable job, then it’s our duty to help them.
Liat’s fundraiser not only helps small cafés like Melrose Bite to stay afloat, but the money also goes towards another worthy cause- delivering food to the homeless. If you’d like to donate, follow this link. You can also check out Liat’s Facebook and Instagram, or head over to her website.
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