
Richard Jones Jr. of Oddly Arranged Media
Richard Jones Jr. of Oddly Arranged Media says the pandemic gave his business time to focus on new things, including a podcast, "Born to Create."
One year ago I decided to follow three Madison small businesses through the crisis created by COVID-19. I am a fan of small businesses — I grew up in one — and worried that COVID would be a fatal blow to many of our independent businesses, most of whom operate within a very narrow profit margin.
My first check-in with Kristi Genna of Genna’s Cocktail Lounge, Richard Jones Jr. of Oddly Arranged Media, and Joanne Berg of Mystery to Me bookstore, came out May 13, the day the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers’ “Safer at Home” order. Dane County quickly responded and issued “Forward Dane” with a plan for phased reopening.
I got in touch with these small business owners again in the early summer and published a second report on July 14; a public health order from Dane County and Madison had been recently issued, limiting indoor capacity for local businesses to 25 percent. But summer weather meant people could gather outside and many businesses limped forward through the summer.
Fast forward to May 2021. Local COVID cases have stabilized, Dane County has a relatively high vaccination rate, my winter malaise is behind me, and I’ve checked in with the three businesses one last time. I am happy to report that while they have some scars, they are all still open for business.
My motivation to do this series sprang from my family’s experience in the wake of the 1977 blackout in New York City that left about 1,400 businesses looted and burned. Decades later my dad, who owned and ran an 80-year-old appliance store on the city’s upper west side, was still frustrated that there had been no meaningful help for the destroyed businesses and that local officials had considered neighborhood businesses expendable.
Politicians talk often about the importance of small businesses and how they are the backbone of local economies. But the rhetoric rarely matches the policy; instead tax breaks and subsidies tend to tilt the playing field towards corporations and away from small businesses. Corporations did quite well during the pandemic, finding loopholes to get a chunk of the federal government’s CARES funding intended for small businesses. But small businesses were not ignored. It turns out that all levels of government stepped up and it is the reason why many of our small businesses are still here. The Paycheck Protection Program, a central piece of the CARES act, allowed many small businesses to keep their workers on payroll and remain open. This was certainly true for Genna’s and Mystery to Me. Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation created the Ethnic Minority Emergency Grant, which provided a useful infusion of cash for Oddly Arranged Studio. And Dane County had a small business grant program.
Every business has its own story about how it adapted to the constraints of operating a business during a pandemic. Following these three businesses the differences were evident, but the similarities were stronger. They all relied on government grants and tangible financial support from their community, whether it was a GoFundMe campaign or online donations. They each experienced a precipitous drop in customers initially, but had to kick into survival mode and pivot to keep their business open. The pivots looked quite different, though. The bookstore and recording studio could turn to technology to continue to serve customers, but a bar that serves people drinks could not.
I know that none of us like a lecture, unless we knowingly signed up to attend one. But here is a small one anyway. Dane County has so many wonderful small businesses — local grocery stores, independent coffee shops, repair shops, longstanding businesses that anchor a neighborhood, and scrappy entrepreneurs who hope that with hard work their business will allow them to climb into a better economic position. There is an economic argument to be made for shopping locally when possible. For every dollar spent at a local independent business, 68 cents stays in the community. For every dollar spent at a large chain, that number drops to 43 cents. But I prefer an emotional argument. Local businesses sponsor our kids’ sports teams, donate to community fundraisers, and bring character to our neighborhoods. With hard work, community support and government resources, most of them are still here. It wasn't easy but they are still here. Let’s make sure we help to keep them here.

With reduced capacity inside, rain and cold play an outsized role for a bar like Genna's Cocktail Lounge. "Relying on our patio service means the business is weather dependent," says owner Kristi Genna, left.
It has been 14 months since the pandemic started. How is your business doing?
Joanne: We’re cautiously optimistic. Our optimism stems directly from the encouragement we get from our very loyal customers and from being in the fantastic Monroe Street neighborhood. Bottom line, we have done remarkably well. Moreover, our booksellers continue to be creative in how we can exceed customer expectations. On the cautious side, the store is open, but we remain vigilant. From August through April we only allowed five people in the store at a time; starting May 1 we began allowing 10 people in at a time. There have been times when we had lines outside waiting to come in, but people seemed okay with that. In addition, we purchased two high quality air filters and clean everything regularly. We require everyone to wear masks and use hand sanitizer. Our booksellers all concur that it is a new world and that we have to remain open and flexible to how we do business. That, in and of itself, brings optimism.
Richard: Things are going really well. Our goal had been to expand our services last year, and even though the pandemic changed a lot of our plans, we were well able to accomplish that. I brought some other folks onto the team. Our long-term goal has always been to make our own content, to share our voice and share the community voice at the same time. But for the past couple of years, as we were getting the studio established, we had been focused on giving voice to other people — to our clients. But when things slowed down this year it gave us the time to work on our content. We started a podcast called Born to Create and have some original music coming out. So things are going well.
Kristi: Genna’s opened back up on April 5 with patio service. Guidelines recently changed so we can now have 50 percent occupancy in the bar, but we are a small bar and with social distancing guidelines we can’t have more than 20 people inside. Relying on our patio service means the business is weather dependent. If the patio is full of customers and it starts to rain we couldn’t accommodate anybody inside and they would have to leave. We can get about 35 socially distanced people on the patio. Going from 25 to 50 percent indoor occupancy still doesn’t allow that many more people inside, but it’s still progress, which is fantastic.
Can you give a brief timeline of how your business adapted during the pandemic?
Joanne: Over these past 14 months we had to make many changes in order to survive. In the beginning, we stayed closed but made home deliveries to customers within 30 miles. That only lasted a few weeks. For a while we offered “mystery” packages for $30 to $100 [titles chosen and bundled by bookstore staff for customers] and were absolutely overwhelmed with the response. One of our display tables very quickly became our mail-processing center. As spring arrived, we opened our door to the fresh air and started doing curbside pick-up. In late June, I tested positive for COVID so we closed again. Everyone was tested and no one else had contracted it. In August we started allowing five customers into the store at one time and offering daily curbside pickup.
It has been hard on the staff (like it’s hard on most people!) because they were worried about contracting COVID. Many staff were tested multiple times. They would stay home until the test results came back. It was just a constant drain on our collective emotions to not know whether or not you're going to get sick. Everyone has now been vaccinated.
Richard: We closed for a few months when everybody was in quarantine and there was the Safer At Home order. Once the order was lifted, we opened and put strict protocols in place. All of our studio clients were willing and able to abide by our protocols. Since June we have been recording music and sound again and things have been going well. Our clients have been great, and a big part of our financial support.
One thing we had to do differently was to be more assertive about letting people know about our workshops. Usually, we connect with the school district and the library, places that are already working with kids to run our programs. Now we needed to connect with parents and children directly, to foster those relationships. It has always been our goal to host our own workshops, just open up our doors, have people come in, learn and create together. So this was a step in the right direction. To recruit kids and run this on our own we turned to the community for support. Folks are willing to jump into action to support us, so that was big.
Kristi: We tried to keep the outdoor seating going as long as we could. We spent a lot of money on fire pits, tents and stuff, to try to deal with the weather. But our street is so windy and it just doesn’t work to have outdoor seating in cold weather. By mid-November we stopped using the patio and outdoor seating and closed the bar down. Since I wasn’t getting paid I couldn’t really afford my downtown condo. So I sold my condo, left Madison on Dec. 11 and stayed with friends in North Carolina for the winter.

Mystery to Me bookstore is now open inside to 10 people at a time.
What kind of financial support did you get that made it possible for your business to survive the pandemic?
Joanne: Many things happened that when added together allowed us to make it through the pandemic so far. We changed how we did our e-commerce and co-branded with Bookshop, an online bookselling platform that supports independent bookstores. This was a really big help to my bottom line since I get a nice percentage of any sale made on Mystery To Me’s Bookshop portal. It’s been a godsend because I was wary that people would just shop online and not bother with stores anymore, but that has not been the case.
I applied for the PPP loan right away and our bank, Associated Bank, was fabulous in helping me through that process. The PPP allowed me to keep everyone on the payroll, even if they were not coming into the store. I knew my staff would get more from me than from unemployment and it helped me not to have to dig into my unemployment reserves. The nerve-wracking part of PPP was not knowing if it would be forgiven or if I would need to pay it back. I needed to prove with my tax paperwork that I really did use the money for payroll. My bank submitted the paperwork to be reviewed and I recently heard that the loan was forgiven, which obviously is wonderful.
I received small grants from the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and Dane Buy Local. I also set up a donation tab on our website and we were overwhelmed with the response. There were no conditions on how we spent this money which helped tremendously in dealing with our increased mailing costs. With our big increase in mail orders and returned books, our freight costs went way up.
Richard: I was very nervous in the beginning. With all the contracts we had set up and the plans that we put in place, we had expected 2020 to be our most lucrative year. Everything shifted at the start of the pandemic, all the school-based workshops and recording clients had to be put on hold. I was able to recover some of that loss with the funding that was out there. We got a grant from the Dane County/Dane Buy Local’s small business pandemic support grant program and Dane Arts. We also got one of the Ethnic Minority Emergency Grants from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. This funding helped us pay our bills when the contracts fell through; it substituted for the cancelled workshops.
Our community helped us get the word out about the workshops and we asked people to sponsor a kid, which allowed us to offer our workshop for free. It was great to see our community support us. It tells me a lot that the community trusts us and wants to see us do well. We aren’t a popular business as far as everyone knowing our name, but the relationships we have are solid. Running virtual workshops has shifted our platform a lot.
Kristi: I got the PPP loan last May and that helped us get through the summer. Having only outdoor service we didn’t make much money when the weather was spotty. When I closed down in November the PPP money had pretty much been used up so my employees went back on unemployment. I got a second PPP loan at the end of February, came back to Madison in the middle of March and started payroll then. Dealing with my bank and trying to figure out how to apply for loans has been frustrating. It’s been confusing to me and my bank hasn’t been as helpful as I would have liked in submitting all the details needed for the PPP. Getting the PPP was crucial and saved my business, but it is only useful if you get the loan forgiven. If I have to pay it back then my business might not survive. I still haven’t heard about my first one. If it doesn’t get forgiven I will have a completely different answer about how useful the PPP were.
A couple of regular customers started a GoFundMe for Genna’s when we had to close down. They raised about $26,000, which helped immensely. It was truly humbling and just amazing. It really did make the difference. Fortunately the rent payments were deferred until we were able to open back up, but the property taxes, insurance, utilities, rent for storage and parking spaces over the winter added up to about $5,000 a month. This GoFundMe money kind of worked out to cover the five months of costs while Genna’s was closed.

Richard Jones Jr. in studio of Oddly Arranged Media
Richard Jones Jr. in the studio at Oddly Arranged Media. He says community support and government assistance helped save his business.
What is something that surprised you this past year — good or bad?
Joanne: We were able to keep our events going throughout the entire pandemic. We averaged about one virtual event a week, it’s been amazing. Not every event was well attended, but people are also watching them after the fact and some come in and buy the book later. And it also kept our bookstore in the minds of people.
Richard: The hardest part of this past year was the unpredictability. Entrepreneurship comes with a certain level of unpredictability — I was prepared for that. But the pandemic was another layer of unpredictability, there wasn’t much I could depend on. Last spring and summer we had to play a waiting game as school districts figured out what they were doing to do. It was stressful, but by early November the stress eased up. Our partners came back and said, “Hey, we still want to work with you. We could figure out what we were all comfortable doing and adapt as time went on. It was stressful, but it worked out.
It would not have been possible to get through this year without my team, my Oddly Arranged Media family. We have a monthly meeting where I bring my ideas and concerns. They were always more calm than me and by the end of the meeting I knew we were good.
Kristi: The GoFundMe was a great surprise. To hear from so many people that “you've provided a place for many people in this community over the years, and it's only right that we would help you when you need help.” I guess I forgot that Genna’s has been an important place for so many people over the years. It’s such a longstanding business.My dad opened it in 1964, and it was amazing to see how far back some of the contributors to the GoFundMe went. Some of them knew my dad. So this definitely made me feel good and has renewed my sense of being a community business.

Carolyn Fath
Joanne Berg of Mystery to Me bookstore
Mystery to Me bookstore owner Joanne Berg says she is "amazingly optimistic" about the future.
How are you feeling right now about your business?
Joanne: I am amazingly optimistic. I would not have said that a year ago. Seeing the commitment many people have to shop locally was great. Dane Buy Local did a fabulous job in promoting this through newspapers, social media, and other media sources. They weren't preachy about it but made the point about what shopping locally means for small businesses and the community. People came into the store (or stopped by for their placed curbside pickup orders) regularly just to thank us for still being here.
Our business isn’t going to return to how it was before the pandemic. Authors and their publicists keep asking us, “When are we going to have in-person events again.” I just don't see that happening for quite awhile; our store is small and I just don't see it. We are going to have some authors sitting outside signing books this summer (and a few events at larger venues), but that's about as close as we're going to get. I think there's too much unknown with all the variations in the virus.
Richard: I'm really excited about what is next. I am vaccinated. I am excited for the prospect of doing things in person, but doing things differently. We learned a lot this last year and want to be more assertive about people learning about the business. We want to host our own events and partner with other organizations. I have some longer-term goals and am looking for digital creators and artists. I want Oddly Arranged to be more vibrant in the community.
Kristi: I was in constant crisis mode. I thought I was doing all right, but I was not. My brain was just fried and I was not functioning well. Going from a very profitable, successful business to just nothing, I just didn't realize how much of a toll it took on me. It really wasn't until I left town and just stepped away from it that I realized how bad the situation was. Right now I have to deal with the fact that the business is not nearly the same as it was and may not be for another year or so. I hope I can adjust and not freak out so much about running a business that isn't really working because I'm not used to that. Especially since it is not my fault. It’s not like I didn’t know how to run a business anymore, it’s just that the world changed. So we are going to try to change with it. It’s weird to be back and have to make these daily stupid decisions about the weather. “Oh God, it's raining. I don't think we can open.” Just this constant weirdness. But I'm committed. We did a lot to get back here and we are going to see this through. As we get vaccinated, I am optimistic that it's going to get better, not worse.

Dylan Brogan
Genna's Cocktail Lounge
Owner Kristi Genna made a lot of sacrifices, including selling her house, in order to keep Genna's going through the pandemic.
How has your thinking about being a business owner changed?
Joanne: The first word that comes to mind is just this tremendous pride in having made it through and also this pride in what we bring to the community. I think that people appreciate having a bookstore that's not a big box store, that is unique. I take pride in that. I think people have risen to the occasion, at least the people in this neighborhood. I know not all bookstores have been as lucky as we’ve been. There are some pretty sad stories out there, but our customers have been extraordinary.
Richard: My thinking hasn’t changed about being a business owner, it affirmed what I already thought. You can say you have faith, but how do you know until that faith is tested? You can say you have a sure-fire business plan, but how do you know it is sure-fire until you have to deal with obstacles? The pandemic taught me that having contingency plans is important, making sure that you're planning far enough ahead to be able to deal with obstacles.
It made me realize that I can make strategic decisions for my business and I have a support system that's strong enough that we can make adjustments and adapt to what's going on. I feel like a survivor, you know, I feel like our business is that much stronger. A lot of people had to close down shop. There are a long list of reasons why we made it through the year. When I started Oddly Arranged, I wanted to figure out how to last for a hundred years. Now that we made it through the brunt of the pandemic, I realize we have a chance to do that.
Kristi: I made a lot of sacrifices to put the business first. Selling my house, keeping reserves of money in case I need a cushion to get through the spring. Right now the weather is still kind of crappy, but we are all optimistic that things are going to get better, not worse. We are getting vaccinated. It will be a relief once all my staff has had their shots. Just about all of my staff has come back. We lost a few people, some left town, but for the most part we have the same crew. Genna’s was a very good business. It was definitely worth trying to save it, to see if we can get back to where we were before the pandemic.

Logo for Staying Alive series
Jen Rubin is the author of We Are Staying: Eighty Years in the Life of a Family, a Store, and a Neighborhood, a book about her family's electronics store in New York City.