Struggles
of a small business trying to survive in Puerto Rico….
Hello
everyone, this is our story for the past 3 years as a small business going thru
hell to stay afloat and surviving.
El Yunque
Food Corp has been for the last decade the official food concessionaire for El
Yunque Rain Forest here in Puerto Rico, with 4 operating locations providing service to the
many visitors that came to our island up to the month of September 2017, almost
three years ago, and that is when hell on earth began for us.
On Sept
7,2017 we had to close all our businesses due to Hurricane Irma battering
Puerto Rico the damage wasn’t too bad and two weeks later we were getting ready
to reopen then a category 5 Hurricane Maria hit us, destroying not only all our businesses in the forest but
the whole island was left in shambles, no electricity for six months, and so forth.
Due to
the damages done to El Yunque, all our businesses were completely destroyed and
it wasn’t until 2 years later at the end of November 2019,that we were able to
reopen 1 of our
locations, as soon as we reopened business was good, and we figured that with
lots of work and the help of the Forest Service all our other locations would
be back in business during 2020. January 7,2020,Puerto Rico is shaken up by a
couple of Earthquakes, although the damage wasn’t very significant we were
forced to close for a week at the start of the tourist season, once again after
reopening business was great up to March 16,2020,when the Covid pandemic hit
and we had to close and layoff our staff of 12 employees.
We remained
closed until July 8,2020 when we were permitted to reopen under very stringent
regulations, such as the Forest Service only allowing 30% of normal visitors
into the forest and charging a fee to those visitors and only thru a
reservations system, only cars, no tour busses. We were open for 2.5 weeks
until July 28,when due to Tropical Storm Isaias we had to close until August 15,
we were open for 1 week and then on August 21 we had close one more time due to
Tropical Storm Laura, this time the closure was for one week and we reopened on
August 27.
As of now
we are still open, but all the rules and regulations on the traveling public, and
the limitations to operate a restaurant at this time have contributed to a 75%
drop in business, we have only been able to rehire 3-4 former employees.
This is
our story, nothing has been exaggerated.
We shall
continue trying to make it work under these very dire circumstances , and hoping
for better days, thank you for reading and share if you so desire.
Rolando / El Yunque Food Corp
