Alex Pinedo is the owner of Toro Tom’s Sports Bar in Lexington. Pinedo shared how he has seen small businesses be affected in Lexington since the closure of the Tyson plant.
Have you seen any effects happen to your bar after the shutdown or are you anticipating any effects that would happen?
So, yeah, definitely. I think everybody in town is feeling it, whether they wanna admit to it or not, but I think initially, when the announcement was made that Tyson was shutting (down), I actually had a big increase in business. I had a lot of people coming in drinking because some people react to big news and drink. I would say everybody, I’ve spoken with several other business owners here in the restaurant side of things or even the grocery stores, and I wanna say that from November right before Thanksgiving when they announced it to when they shut down, maybe a little after the end of January, it was very normal. It didn’t seem like anything was changing. I think it really sunk into people and things really started happening during February. Everyone that I’ve spoken to that owns a business here, they’ve all admitted that business has slowed down. On my side of things, for sure, my lunch crowd is where I felt it the most. I had to adjust my hours. I am no longer open for lunch just because it was the slowest time. But I do know there’s a couple other restaurants here in town that have laid off some of their workforce just because they can no longer afford to have them working.
Do you have any plans specifically to combat this next wave?
Not necessarily. I already have a pretty small staff, and I mean, the people that I have employed, I’m their second job. I don’t think there’s – I have not had anybody that’s full-time with me only and they themselves have a job that hasn’t been affected by the Tyson closure, so they’ll be fine. So as far as me keeping my doors open and running day-to-day, I think we’re gonna be OK. I think if anything, I will stick with my current modified schedule and only open evenings. But as far as reducing stuff, I don’t think – I don’t foresee myself doing anything. I own a building, so I don’t have a lot of these other expenses that I guess cripple me in those ways. So, knock on wood, but I think we’ll be OK.
If the second wave is maybe bigger than what you expected or has a bigger impact, is there a chance you could leave Lexington and go somewhere else to open up this bar, or is Lexington kind of the place you kind of want to stay?
So, by trade, I’m actually a medical microbiologist. I worked at UNMC for the longest time, out in Omaha, before I came back into town and started this. So, if push comes to shove, I think I will still keep this place open and just kind of work on it mostly as like on the administrative side of things. And I can always go back and work in my career and my profession if I need that for myself. But a side note kind of thing, I am also myself and a couple of other individuals, we are opening up another restaurant in Kearney – the old Skeeter Barn. So, we will be open on the opening, be part of that ownership group there opening there. So, the funds that come from there will also kind of help keep this place open. I think the people that are still here, most of them, I would say, have already secured employment and are just commuting. I know the sustainable beef plant in North Platte, a lot of people are commuting there. So, a lot of people who are really looking for work and wanna stay in town, and mainly I think they’re needing to stay in town because they have mortgages that are kind of locked in here. It’s kind of hard to sell your house now because nobody wants to buy a house in a town that’s quote-unquote dying. I think most of them have secured jobs outside of town and in the near future will be commuting.
