SUMTER, S.C. — Over 40 people are unemployed in Sumter after a business announced it’s closing effective immediately.
Harvin Choice Meats, originally called Kirkland Provision, has been a staple in the community since it opened in the 1930s.
It’s been family-owned and operated for decades, but on Monday evening, owner Scott Harvin said it will shut its doors.
“I was shocked,” Levette Edwards said. “I felt like a deer in headlights.”
Edwards said she’s been working as the office administrator at the meat facility for seven years. She said the immediate closure puts financial strain on her and other employees like Sonya Sneed.
“I'm upset about all of this,” Sneed said, visibly emotional. “You know, I can't get unemployment because I owe them money right now. All of that will have to be paid back before I can get a dime of any of my unemployment, so I'm very upset.”
Employees like Josh Christmas say their most recent paycheck sum is being withdrawn from their bank accounts.
“I go look in my bank account, and my deposit from April 2, which was two weeks ago, had been…it had a negative number next to it saying that it had been deducted even though I'd already used that money,” Christmas said.
“I would say it affects all of us about the same. I mean, some of us depend on that money from check to check," he added. "Some of us, maybe not, but it can do a lot of stuff. Some of us have payments that are due and we planned to pay it with this part of our check. I mean, it can affect a lot of people differently. But when it comes to money, that's how life goes. You have to have money to support your family and stuff.”
Scott Harvin started working at the family business as a teenager.
“I swore I’d never come back. And I ended up coming back and when I was looking for work, my dad — it was the summertime — and he was like ‘Well, you know, you’ve drive a truck…While you’re looking for work I could certainly use some help',” Harvin remembered. “I was engaged and getting married and her parents lived in town…I stayed and here we are.”
Harvin said he’s worked at the business his entire career, eventually taking over as owner in 2007.
“My heart’s with my employees, and I’m working hard to make sure that they’re taken care of,” Harvin said. “It’s going to be difficult, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to do.”
In some cases, the business employed people for decades. Bobby Brown is one such employee who said she’s worked for Harvin Choice Meats for 32 years.
“Working there all this time, it's been a good run,” Brown said. “I mean, like, meeting pretty much everybody was like family.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic and rising inflation, Harvin says the business has been struggling.
“If I were smart, I probably would have shut down before or during COVID, but I’m emotionally connected to the business and I’ve never done anything else,” Harvin explained. “It’s past time. Because I’ve done this all my life and it’s a family thing, you know, I told a friend of mine that I have made some emotional decisions that weren’t business decisions.”
Harvin says he didn't see the quick decision to close the business coming until Sunday when he got an email from a vendor saying that the money he was owed would never be paid.
“I cannot go forward. There’s just nowhere to go,” Harvin said. “And if I continue and act like nothing’s wrong, I’m just going to roll this problem up and it’s going to get worse, so I was, like, I cannot do that. As difficult as that is, I can’t do it.”
Harvin said he told employees the next day that the business would have to close. Regarding the withdrawn paychecks, Harvin said he uses an outside payroll company.
“I use an outside payroll company and I look, of course, daily at my bank balance, and you know there was not a lot of money, but there was enough to cover," Harvin said. "And, you know, two or three other minor transactions hit, and there wasn’t. I had no communication with this particular company; they just bounced it back. And they bounced mine back, too.”
Harvin said he’s working with the company to fix the issue and get his former employees’ money back to them.
“At this point, we appear to be close to making a deal so that I can take care of that and it’ll just mean I’m personally in debt, but at this moment it’s whatever it takes. It’s not an option,” Harvin shared.
As for the employees, Christmas said he’s looking at all his options.
“I'm looking for a job and I filed because you don't know when you're going to get a job,” Christmas said. “So you got to have that as a backup sitting there while you're looking for another job, which I'm pretty sure that's what we’re all trying to do. Trying to make way because it's boom, just like that ball dropped.”
Harvin said his top priority is resolving issues with the paychecks, and then he’ll work to clear the building’s inventory.
News19 contacted the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) to learn more about the situation.
The department said companies must only provide advance notice if they qualify under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The act says employees must be given 60-day notice about closure if the business employs more than 50 people.
According to Harvin, Harvin Choice Meat has 45 employees, so the department said the WARN Act does not apply in this case, which SCDEW confirmed.
“In this case, the company has under 50 employees, and WARN would not be applicable,” SCDEW wrote. “Aside from WARN, employers are not required to provide advance notice to their employees.”
“Employees who are laid off through no fault of their own may file for unemployment insurance benefits, and each employee will receive an eligibility determination based on his/her eligibility for benefits," an SCDEW spokesperson wrote. "We consider all claims for benefits expedited, and typically issue a determination within two weeks."
“Even though WARN is not applicable here, our Rapid Response team has been in contact with employees and is providing resources," the spokesperson added. "DEW encourages impacted employees to reach out to their local S.C. Works center or visit the SCWorks.org website for assistance.”
News19 also contacted the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (SCDLLR) to learn about employees' compensation rights.
“In South Carolina, if employees work, we require that they be paid," a spokesperson said by email. "Employers can designate the terms of that employment (i.e. rate of pay, pay date, leave, etc.) and must adhere to what is agreed upon. So even if an employer has closed, it still has a responsibility to make sure all employees are paid for the work they did.”
The department said that, in this instance, an employer would need to follow S.C. Code Section 41-10-50, which states: When an employer separates an employee from the payroll for any reason, the employer shall pay all wages due to the employee within 48 hours of the time of separation or the next regular payday which may not exceed 30 days.
“All employees who believe this statute has been violated (i.e. worked but did not get paid or got paid late) can file a Wage Complaint using this link: SCLLR,” the agency said. “Complaints are reviewed and assigned in the order they are received. We typically assign complaints for the same employer to one investigator. While we review for regulatory violations and issue citations, we make no guarantees about an employee receiving wages owed, nor do we collect wages on behalf of employees.”
For employees like Edwards, it’s about more than just a paycheck.
“We all need to be paid for the time that we worked,” Edwards said. “If you have vacation time, we…a lot of us had time saved up that we were waiting to use on future dates. We should be compensated for everything that is owed to us and due to us.”
“I'm supposed to be going on my vacation next week,” former employee Patricia McBride added. "And now I put in for it and everything, and all of a sudden, just like I said, Monday morning, we walked in, and we got the sad news, the bad news that we were closing. And I was shocked.”
Regarding the business, Harvin said it’s changed significantly since when he started working.
“A long time ago, there were a lot of what I call community grocery stores or rural stores all over the countryside and there were more farm workers and laborers in the fields and servicing those customers is really the bread and butter of the business," Harvin said. "Over time, for various reasons, a lot of those stores have closed.”
“It’s made things more difficult. You end up dealing with fewer customers on a larger scale, I suppose, so it’s not as much fun as it used to be," he added. "Good people - no complaints there - but just a whole different environment than what used to be.”
When it comes to his former employees' anger and frustration, Harvin said he understands it.
“I understand people are upset, and that’s normal,” Harvin said. “I don’t know anything other to do than to try and be honest and upfront and, you know, do everything that I can do. That’s all I know.”