Item Details

creator

Strackman, Braden

Milner, Bethany

date

2020-09-08T18:47:41Z

2020-09-08T18:47:41Z

2020-07-24

2020-09-08 (issued)

description

Bethany Milner is the Owner and Manager of Top Leaf Cigar Lounge, a premium cigar retail shop and smoking lounge in Winston-Salem founded in November 2016. Top Leaf saw a slowdown in business as early as February and as a unique hyrbid retail and lounge business, Milner had difficulty finding safety restrictions that addressed her business model well. While she was technically labeled as an essential business, being a tobacco distributer, she decided to align herself with Stage Two openings instead, closing initially and then reopening two months later. She explains the complications she encountered seeking finanical support and how she ended up spending most of the loan she received on taxes related to her tobacco license. During the quarantine period, Top Leaf stayed afloat by delivering cigar orders to individuals' homes, and once they reopened, they did so with a long list of cleaning and health procedures, some of which Milner plans to keep in place even after the pandemic. She expresses love for her business and the ability to hear many perspectives from the customers that smoke in her shop, then addresses the politically charged American perspective on COVID-19 and mask wearing. Although she notes this time as uncomfortable, she shares that she has learned to find peace in the discomfort and is optimistic about the change that will come out of this period.

format

audio/mp3

Oral histories

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/96971

language

English

relation

Special Collections and Archives

Z. Smith Reynolds Library

Wake Forest University

Office of Civic and Community Engagement (RG22.6)

rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Rights Statement

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

subject

Coronavirus infections--History--Sources

COVID-19 (Disease)--History--Sources

Wake Forest University--History--Sources

COVID-19 Student Interviews

Office of Civic and Community Engagement

Winston-Salem (N.C.)

Small business--United States

Tobacco

Cigars

Retail trade

title

COVID-19 Student Interviews - Milner, Bethany

type

Sound