"Don't panic" says Chamber of Commerce

A shopper - wearing a medical mask - leaves Costco after shopping. Photo by Alex Dominguez

NORWALK - Though things still remain uncertain surrounding the total impact of the coronavirus, the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce says not to panic. It’s no secret that businesses across the nation are already feeling the dramatic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to Caryn Spilsbury, Executive Director of the Chamber, the chamber has been preparing for the ramifications of the coronavirus for around three weeks.

“I pay attention to the news, stay informed,” said Spilsbury. “It was about three weeks or so ago that people started running Costco out of toilet paper. I said, ‘okay, this is going to be an issue.’”

Spilsbury has been in contact with other chambers locally, and says that all involved have continued to communicate.

She says, “everyone is sharing.”

“As a group, I have Gateway Chambers Alliance that I am the interim executive director for, so I work with 121 other chambers locally,” said Spilsbury. “We’ve been in conversation for about a week and a half on our events, on how we can best serve as a gatherer and processor of information for our members.”

“Right now, we are in an email chain right now about how everybody is providing information and perhaps trying to gather as much information as we can as a group to support each other in getting that information out.”

At this point, Spilsbury says that she thinks a lot of chambers are “hunkering down,” and that there’s not much a chamber can do other than provide information and stay supportive at this time.

Still, he says that the best thing for businesses to do right now is to stay calm.

“My best advice to anybody is to not panic, because panicking doesn’t create solutions,” said Spilsbury. “Whether that’s panic buying, whether that’s social media hysteria, whatever it is, just stay calm.”

“This is something new that the entire world is dealing with, and none of us have the right answers yet. But I believe that our government is on top of things as best they can be, that they will find those answers, and that we will all come out on the other side of this – probably a little worse for the weather – but we will.”