Sugar Land businesses look back at the start of the pandemic one year later

SUGAR LAND, Texas (KTRK) -- It's been a little over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic affected our way of life. Local businesses shut down temporarily and had to creatively pivot in order to survive. Some of the local places in Sugar Land remember what that was like a year ago, and shared with us what they had to do to stay afloat.

Over at House of Blooms, owner Pat Houck says they had to rely heavily on internet sales over the past year. She credits strong community support for her family businesses survival. "Since COVID, they rallied around House of Blooms and they've really supported us, and I want to say thank you to the community for that." Houck said.

Restaurants were also affected and felt the impacts of shutting down. Jason Molinos, GM for Japaneiro's in Sugar Land Town Square says they had to lean on numerous to-go orders at the start of the pandemic. " We've been here for 17 years and the community is the backbone to what we do. We live in the area and they've been on this ride with us. They carried us along the way and we love them for being here" Molinos said.

Fit Theorem really thought outside of the box and used the pandemic and stay at home orders to reshape their whole business structure. They used to be called I Love Kickboxing, but completely switched gears to cater those who wanted to stay fit, while working out from home virtually. Fit Theorem's Cal Adams said "so we took it as the opportunity to create our own franchise. After that we launched our own virtual program. We kept our members happy, we reopened our doors, and since then we have signed on an additional 18 other locations including a new one we're opening in Canada."