Shore businesses adjust amid coronavirus pandemic

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - Businesses down the shore are adjusting to a new normal amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fourteen years of slinging crab cakes along Asbury Avenue in Ocean City, Jay Graham says this is one Memorial Day he’d rather forget.

“This one was definitely the most interesting," he told FOX 29.

On the boardwalk, you can get your fudge from a distance. For merchants, this summer will be spent learning the curve. 

Retailers like George's Beach Shop are not quite curbside but boardwalk-side pickup only and they have new rules.

Perhaps the biggest change other than seeing masks on the boardwalk? You can pick up takeout at restaurants but can't sit inside.

All of the businesses FOX 29’s Chris O’Connell spoke with on Monday say they are down at least 75 percent over the last year, but that’s 25 percent more of what could have been. 

“If you kind of set your expectations a little lower it turned out to be a really good weekend. A lot of people were out and about calling in orders and we are just super grateful about that," Graham said.

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