The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic has put several states in the US under complete lockdown. According to UN statistics, the US continues to be at the top of COVID-19’s worst-hit countries in the world. As the US economy fails to regain its momentum, local businesses are facing the brunt of the commercial standstill. In recent news, a renowned costume business in Omaha City, Nebraska is on the verge of getting closed forever.
According to the reports, things are not going well for Omaha’s Ibsen Costume Gallery. Due to public lockdown, the city’s famous costume rental store is unable to stay in business. The Ibsen Costume Gallery has provided costumes for Omaha’s theatrical industry for decades. It has been recognized for its active contribution to the city’s theatrical plays. But, the COVID-19 situation has scrapped all the plays across the metropolitan. Due to the absence of demand, costume rentals for Ibsen Costume Gallery have dropped to an all-time low.
For the past few months, the Gallery, located on the 50th & Hamilton Street of Omaha City, has temporarily shut its doors to customers. However, if things continue this way, the owners of Omaha’s legendary costume store may have to permanently shut their doors.
Dwayne Ibsen of the Ibsen Costume Gallery says that his store has lost business for over 80 to 90 shows this year. This huge deficit is draining out their funds to pay its employees and stay afloat. When the outbreak began in March, the country stopped all public activity abruptly. As a result, all active theatrical plays were canceled and the lineups for upcoming months were scrapped as well. Clients of the Gallery, who had already rented costumes from them, returned their orders since they were unable to use them. Hence, the Ibsen Costume Gallery did not charge rent on those costumes and had to refund the deposits for thousands of costumes out of sudden, which caused the financial pitfall for the store. Even so, Ibsen hopes that his business may get back in shape if it manages to survive till January 2021.
