“The fallout by this time next year will be shocking,” she told The Epoch Times on Dec. 30, 2020.
Schroeder owns two Color Me Mine franchises—small craft shops where customers come in, select a piece of pottery, and paint it in the store. The store then fires it for them. The main money-maker for Schroeder is from groups of people coming in and painting together as a social activity.
But the constant closures imposed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, has left her financially stripped and caused the demise of one of her businesses and the loss of eight employees.
On June 2 last year, Schroeder had to permanently close her store in Rochester, Minnesota, after being unable to sustain the losses.
“I was bleeding money,” she said. “What people don’t realize is that you don’t close it and cut all your losses.”
Schroeder had a lease through 2024, which was for $250,000. She had to negotiate a buyout, which cost her entire retirement fund of $50,000.
“The woman who owns the building lost big, too,” she said.
The rent at her two remaining locations, in Eagan and Woodbury, totals $10,500 per month.
“I can’t make a $10,500 rent payment every month from my husband’s income—it’s not even possible—much less pay all my staff, and order stuff, and pay for the utilities and all of that. It’s just impossible. And I think people are shocked when they find out my rent—they think I’m paying $500, they really do.”
Schroeder had just completed her profit-and-loss summary on QuickBooks and revealed that she was $200,000 down.
“I’m 57, so for me to make that up at a pottery store … and that’s in nine months,” she said, “for me to make that up over the years is, I don’t know how that’ll work. I’ll make it up when I sell the stores, I suppose, because they’ll have a value.”
That’s assuming she can continue to weather the capricious lockdowns and rebuild her stores.
Clay Clark, investor and author of “Fear Unmasked—Discover the Truth about the Coronavirus Shutdown,” said the shutdowns have resulted in countless urban areas now looking like dystopian movie scenes.
“Small-business owners have put their entire life-savings and have invested years of their lives into starting and building a business that these heartless and tyrannical governors and mayors are destroying with their unconstitutional mandates,” Clark told The Epoch Times via email.
“China’s leadership should be proud. Many communist-controlled governors and mayors have done their part to execute the ‘Great Reset’ flawlessly.”
The “Great Reset” refers to a World Economic Forum idea that the pandemic can be used to reshape global relations and economies.