Should you be at work? Here’s a list of ‘essential businesses’ in SLO County
The shelter-at-home order in San Luis Obispo County allows certain businesses to stay open if they are considered essential while requiring many others to close. Soon, officials will crack down on businesses that defy the order.
Businesses ordered to close their physical location to enhance social distancing and reduce the spread of COVID-19 may continue to operate if they can provide services online with no in-person contact, the county says. That includes online clothing sales or YouTube exercise classes, for example.
Some businesses, like restaurants, are allowed to operate limited services.
Here’s a look at who must close and who can stay open:
These businesses must close their physical location
- Amphitheaters, concert halls, performing arts centers
- Amusement arcades
- Archery ranges, shooting ranges
- Arenas
- Art galleries
- Athletic supply and sporting goods stores
- Auto sales (in person)
- Banquet halls
- Barbers, hair salons, or nail salons
- Bookstores
- Botanical gardens
- Bowling alleys
- Car washes (full service)
- Casinos and cardrooms
- Climbing gyms
- Clothing stores
- Concerts/events at certified farmers markets
- Craft sales
- Dance halls/studios, dances
- Day spas, massage parlors
- Fairs, public exhibitions
- Fitness centers, gyms, tennis clubs
- Flight schools
- Health clubs, yoga centers
- Historical sites
- Libraries
- Miniature golf courses
- Model homes
- Motorcycle clubs
- Movie theaters, drive-in theaters
- Museums
- Music events or nightclubs
- Pet grooming
- Pool and billiard lounges
- Private social clubs
- Public swimming pools
- Raceways
- Rodeos, public equestrian events
- Roller skating rinks, roller derby
- Second hand/thrift stores
- Sports stadiums and facilities
- Swap meet/flea market
- Tattoo and body piercing parlors
- Trampoline and bounce houses
- Water parks
- Zoos
These businesses can offer limited services
- Restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, creameries, smoothie bars, delis, etc. (Serving food via drive-through, delivery, or pickup)
- Houses of worship (churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, etc., can provide counseling and relief services and broadcast religious services, but no congregations of people are allowed)
- Real estate sales and marketing (closings and telephone activities permitted)
- Tasting rooms, breweries, distilleries (production/bottling may continue, pickup and delivery are permitted, no on-site consumption)
- Schools, public and private (distance/online learning, housing, administration and food only)
These businesses may remain open
- Agriculture
- Airlines
- Alarm and security companies
- Animal boarding, pet supply
- Auto repair and service
- Banks and other financial services
- Blood donation centers
- Businesses that supply essential businesses with necessary supplies or items required to work from home
- Cemeteries, funeral parlors and internment services
- Childcare facilities (with limitations)
- Community gardens
- Construction, architecture, engineering services (all active construction in progress and all work related to emergency housing, care facilities, and essential infrastructure may continue)
- Convenience stores
- Distribution and delivery of essential consumer or business goods
- Domestic violence shelters
- Drug stores
- Dry cleaners and laundromats
- Electricians
- Essential government services
- Exterminators
- Farmers markets, produce stands
- Farming (all agriculture) and related support industries
- Food cultivation and related support services
- Gas stations
- Grocery stores
- Hardware stores
- Home-based care
- Home repair and maintenance (landscaping, pool service, repairs)
- Homeless service providers, shelters
- Hospitals, clinics, and medical offices
- Hotels and motels, bed and breakfasts, VRBO
- Janitorial services for essential businesses
- Licensed firearm retailer
- Mailing and shipping services
- Manufacturing of essential consumer and business goods
- Media, internet technology support
- Online wholesale or retail sales
- Pharmacies
- Plumbers, HVAC
- Professional services (legal, insurance, title, accounting, mortgage brokers, payroll, and others as needed to assist with legally mandated or essential services)
- Property management
- Public transit, buses, rideshare, taxis, Uber, Lyft
- Railroads
- Recyclers, including electronics recyclers
- Re-entry or rehabilitation facilities
- Residential facilities
- Restaurants* (See limited services list)
- Schools, public and private (distance/online learning, administration and food only)
- Solid waste haulers
- Storage facilities
- Trucking and moving services
- Utility providers (water, power, gas, cable, internet, cell service)
- Veterinarians
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 1:52 PM.
Monica Vaughan
The Tribune