Filomena Riccioni: Pizza, Socializing from Safe Distance

Wedgewood Pizza Austintown store owner Filomena Riccioni is hanging tough. You can read more about Wedgewood at its website.

What are some ways the COVID-19 outbreak has changed your work life?

It’s made us all more aware and even more careful about cleanliness and safety. We’re much more conscious and alert, and that’s a good thing. We just had a complete spray-down. As an industry and as a society, we’ve become much more attentive to being safe and clean. 

The store is open for carryout only, and that’s more than 90 percent of our business anyway. We’ve reduced hours a little to enable employees to be with their families more since a lot of them have children at home.

How about your personal life? 

It’s made me watch myself and watch my father as far as having close contact. We all have to watch. Our nephew just had a baby, and we can’t hug the baby. We’re all moving away from being as touch-y feel-y as we used to be, which is difficult. 

What steps are you taking to hang tough? 

Staying clean, staying on track, keeping busy in the shop, maintaining a sense of humor and keeping that distance. But we haven’t stopped socializing. You can still talk to people from a safe distance, and we’re doing that a lot with each other and customers. We all like to gab. I’m a very social person and our business is a very social business.

What advice are you sharing with the people you love? 

I’m asking for advice more than giving it. We’ve all been giving each other hope and sharing ideas. I rely a lot on my employees, who are like an extended family. This is new to all of us and we’re all searching, all finding different sources of information and comfort. We’re all contributing.

It’s important that we don’t get overwhelmed. There is no point in stressing over something you can’t control.