Coping with Covid with Mitch Cohen
Mitch Cohen has been in franchising for more nearly 40 years. Today he operates 3 Jersey Mike’s locations in Long Island, New York. He recently signed a 6-unit agreement with Sola Salon Studios. He also is a founding partner of PerforMax Franchisee Advisors, a team of experienced multi-unit franchisees who provide operator-focused strategies to improve franchisee performance, engagement, and trust.
How has Covid-19 affected your business?
Our 3 shops are down about 25% in sales since March 13. We’ve had a few employees go out on unemployment, but for the most part everyone is still working. April and May were a big surprise to us: we saw sales grow, and our comps have been either flat or down less 10% since March. We had all but one employee back to work before even reaching Phase 2 of reopening.
What are you doing right now to get through this?
We are working in the communities more now than ever before, using social media to let our guests know that we are following the CDC recommendations. We have calls with our staff on a regular basis to make sure they are doing alright at home, providing help there if we can, and making sure they feel safe working in our shops. We continue to work with our communities and have partnered with local service businesses and sport teams to provide meals to the NYPD, FDNY, local testing centers, and employees of senior living facilities, totaling more than 7,700 meals so far. We’ve added more safety and sanitation procedures to match the CDC and local requirements, and we’ve made custom-made masks a requirement to our uniform to ensure the safety of our employees and guests.
Is your franchisor helping keep you afloat?
Jersey Mike’s has been helping with ad fund deferments, $1,000 per location, to offset donations of food. They’ve altered TV advertising and are sharing in the discounting programs they have run nationally. The company continues to be a great partner in helping us with daily communications on what is necessary for us to meet CDC requirements. And they’ve made sure that the delivery of our product was not interrupted while production plants were shutting down because of the virus.
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