Memphis copes with rampant closings, cancellations for coronavirus

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a pandemic. Reported illnesses range from very mild to severe, including death. Agencies anticipate widespread transmission will occur in the U.S. in coming months and recommend social distancing among other measures to slow the spread. Call your doctor and stay home if you are sick. Get more information at CDC.gov/coronavirus or contact the Tennessee Department of Health coronavirus information line at 877-857-2945 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. CT daily.

On a normal Tuesday, the Crosstown Concourse in Midtown Memphis is packed with caffeine addicts, shoppers and professionals hunkered down over their laptops.

But this wasn't a normal Tuesday.

Almost a week after the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, reached "pandemic" status, triggering a wave of closings and cancellations across the country and in the Greater Memphis area, only four people were seated in the cavernous, eerily silent concourse.

"I'm used to seeing more activity," said freelance writer Carmelita Brown, 46, of East Memphis, as she looked around the building. "This is the least I've seen."

Across Greater Memphis, people are slowly adjusting to what's known as "social distancing," as COVID-19 empties workplaces, eateries, stores and other public places like the Crosstown Concourse. They're staying away from crowds and washing their hands, even when they do go out.

"We're just being mindful, doing what we can do," said Steve Maskas, 71, as he walked over the Overton Park Greensward with his wife, Jean, and their dog Luke. "We're eating out of our freezer a lot, wiping things down, washing our hands — being by ourselves, more than anything."

Sitting outside Crosstown, waiting on a friend, public school teacher Michael Schewning, 37, said he wants to react responsibly but also rationally.

"I'm trying not to be somewhere with large groups — but you have to go to the store," he said. "At least we're not like Italy."

The key is to keep your reaction in the middle, between the extremes, Brown said.

"It's either a joke or the end of the world," she said. "My grandmother is looking for Christ to come back."

Inside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in the Soulsville area of South Memphis on Tuesday, traffic was slower than usual for a spring break. There was all of the normal activity you'd expect to see — people checking out the gift shop as The Gap Band’s “Yearning for Your Love” played in the background, employees greeting tourists — but there were also employees in purple gloves disinfecting countertops.

The museum will temporarily close for at least two weeks starting Wednesday and postpone all events through April 30, Executive Director Jeff Kollath said.

“It’s times like this when tourism is going to take a hit, and we’re a part of the tourism industry, but you do the best you can,” Kollath said. “For us, it’s finding ways for us to tell our story.”

That was also the challenge for other Soulsville businesses. 

Across the street from Stax, Memphis Rox Climbing Gym announced Tuesday it would close for the rest of the month. A half-mile away, the staff at The Four Way spent the morning cleaning and disinfecting the popular soul-food restaurant after closing for the day. They cleaned tables, chairs, tablecloths and walls from the dining room area and kitchen to the bathrooms.

Four Way owner Patrice Bates Thompson said she hadn't seen a drop in business before Monday, when the restaurant is closed, but wanted to be prepared and proactive.

“We hadn’t been impacted over the weekend. Business was still viable for us,” Thompson said.

When the Four Way reopens Wednesday, it will offer to-go orders as well as limited seating, with customers at every other table and no more than four at one table, she said. They will also serve on paper plates and no longer pass out menus. Thompson is also foregoing her paycheck for the next few weeks to ensure her employees get paid.

Thompson expects service to slow down under the new rules, but said The Four Way will be there for its guests.

“We’ll be trying to serve our customers as best as I can while also being safe as well,” Thompson said.

Across town at Ugly Mug in East Memphis, private elementary school teacher Samantha Hurt, a Bartlett mother of 3-year-old twins, said she'll wash her hands but doesn't plan to cut out coffee runs anytime soon.

"I think it's something to be taken seriously, but not something to panic over," she said.

In Germantown, signs of the coronavirus were everywhere, from empty parking lots and closed stores to lackluster rush-hour traffic.

At Trader Joe's, a trash can overflowed with sanitized wipes used to clean shopping carts and baskets. Inside the store, shelves were cleared of meat, and stocks of chips and bread were running low. Shoppers — including a man in what looked like a partial gas mask — hurried along the aisles buying up the remaining toilet paper and cases of bottled water. 

At the nearby Germantown Wine and Liquor, workers unloading a supply truck summed up sales over the past few days with a single word: "Crazy."

Inside the Target off Forest Hill Irene Road, all of the toilet paper, paper towels and tissues had been purchased off the shelves by 10 a.m. Cleaning supplies, cold and flu medication, over-the-counter pain relievers, meat, milk and eggs were also in short supply at the store only two hours after it had opened. 

Shoppers — many with school-aged children in tow — said they had been to every store in town that morning looking for paper towels, toilet paper, hand sanitizer and cleaning products. One woman said she even had to cancel a trip to New York for her granddaughter's birthday and was now spending her time going from store to store looking for basic supplies. 

Sitting at a Memphis Area Transit Authority bus stop in Midtown, 59-year-old David Malik said he was catching a bus to the Midtown Kroger to scrounge for supplies for his mother, then to her house to drop off the groceries, then back to Kroger to get his own groceries before returning to his home in North Memphis.

"I wouldn't be out here today if it wasn't for buying groceries," he said.

Stax guest services representative Brandon Dickerson courteously worked the front desk, but the 23-year-old worried about the long-term impact of businesses closing and how day-to-day lives would be affected.

“People have livelihoods and routines. We have to pay bills, we have student loans. How am I supposed to live without my job but at the same time, how am I supposed to live with this virus and this sickness?” Dickerson asked. “It’s like a battle. Is my health more important than this? But at the same time, I have to live. I have to provide.”

Before resuming his shift, Dickerson walked to the restroom to wash his hands. On the mirror, there was a sign directing guests how to wash for 20 seconds while singing the chorus to the Otis Redding Stax classic "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay."

Even in uncertain times, Dickerson turned to music as he sang and wondered what’s next after the museum temporarily closes its doors.

"Sittin' in the mornin' sun, I’ll be sittin' when the evenin' comes. Watchin' the ships roll in, then I watch' em roll away again. I’m sittin' on the dock the bay. Watchin' the tide roll away. I’m sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time."

Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.