James Mann, a lawyer, stepped inside after taking an Uber from Brooklyn.
“I think there’s going to be trouble in the long run,” he said, keeping his face covered while Peiss trimmed his hair. “If we all have to wear masks for a really long time, I would consider leaving New York. I’m not from here, and I can move somewhere else. I can practice from anywhere, right?”
His mood lifted once Peiss finished.
“Now I feel ready to face the world again,” he said. “It makes a difference.”
At least two more financiers came in. Even though bankers have barely begun to get back into their offices, the stock market has been booming, thanks in part to trillions of dollars of stimulus and support from the Federal Reserve. The government’s Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to help small businesses. Anzalone said he tried and failed to get a PPP loan.
“We have to move forward,” he said. “Everything will work out in time. It has to — it should.”
The business has survived bear markets, a terrorist attack and now a pandemic. Anzalone remembers how his father used to cut hair for Goldman bankers from a shop that shared another downtown building with the firm. His dad died at home two years ago this July. Anzalone gave him his final shave.
--With assistance from Sridhar Natarajan.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.