Community Impact of COVID-19 Episode #1: An Introduction

In the first video in the new series Community Impact of COVID-19: An Introduction, Katie von der Lieth and Peter Giuliano analyze what the SCA’s most recent survey tells us about the general impact of COVID-19, changes in sales channels, lost sales to date, future revenue expectations, and business decisions around remaining close or opening back up for service.

We also take a look at respondents’ attitudes and optimism about the situation. For example, the May/June survey showed a notable decrease in the number of respondents selecting “likely to go out of business” when asked, compared to the March survey, potentially signifying that the majority of specialty coffee respondents see this as a survivable time.

One key takeaway we saw in our open-ended questions was a strong focus on worker safety, customer safety, and sanitary practices in light of COVID-19. Respondents mentioned the implementation of safety and health procedures more than any other tool as a key competency during reopening. 80% of respondents mentioned new cleaning and sanitation procedures being implemented. 

Another major takeaway we saw was an emphasis on communications and marketing. 90% of respondents to our survey either never closed or have reopened at closing at one point, and many respondents see marketing as a way to communicate their ready-for-business status to their community. To give our community better marketing tools, we’ll be launching a separate video on this topic shortly, as another part of this video series.


Special Thanks to Pacific Barista Series

This series is made possible with support from Pacific Barista Series.