During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants and retail stores across the country sat empty as customers stayed home to avoid contagion. In recent months, as pandemic restrictions have eased up across California, many businesses aim to achieve pre-pandemic levels of enterprise.

In a recent study examining pandemic recovery trajectories across major North American cities, UC Berkeley city and regional planning doctoral student Laura Schmahmann worked with a group of researchers to track how respective downtowns have fared since.

“Prior to the pandemic, downtowns (or Central Business Districts) were the economic heart of large cities across the US,” Schmahmann said in an email. “Shelter-in-place regulations and the shift to remote-work in March 2020 wiped away this activity in an instant.”

Recovery from the pandemic is largely influenced by public health regulations and the types of businesses operating in the area, according to Schmahmann. San Francisco, for instance, has experienced a slower return to downtown areas due to the city’s stricter COVID-19 regulations and the remote nature of its tech industry.

While the study did not specifically look at the city of Berkeley, Schmahmann said in the email she observed a “noticeable” increase in the city’s downtown business as many students began attending in-person classes once again.

Schmahmann noted, however, that many local businesses still face difficulties.

“For the businesses that have survived, it may take some time for them to recover, especially if they have taken on additional debt during this time,” Schmahmann said in the email.

Pegasus Books is one example of a local Berkeley business that has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Amy Thomas, owner of Pegasus Books, the bookstore had already struggled to keep up with large competitors like Amazon even before the closures.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, Pegasus Books was forced to close its doors in March 2020; it would stay closed for more than six months, according to Thomas. Sales plummeted by about 90%, and the bookstore had to refocus its attention on online purchases.

“There was kind of a long plateau of terrible,” Thomas said. “One of the hardest things during the height of (the pandemic), it just kept changing like every day. New rules, new statistics, new lockdowns.”

While Pegasus Books had already offered an online alternative prior to the pandemic, it never really took off until it closed its retail locations — Thomas recalls waking up to more than 100 online orders the day after they closed the store.

The pandemic also forced Pegasus Books to explore new tactics such as having shorter business hours and a smaller, but higher-paid, staff, according to Thomas. These strategies, in combination with the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, helped Pegasus Books stay afloat enough to reopen its doors.

With that said, the road to recovery for many local businesses is still long, according to Schmahmann.

“The community can support downtown Berkeley by shopping locally,” Schmahmann said in the email. “Supporting local businesses is critical to ensuring their survival.”