MAHONING COUNTY, Ohio - People impacted by coronavirus layoffs and lock downs are turning to pawn shops for help in getting by.
Because they deal in loans and financial transactions pawn shops remain open as essential businesses. They picked up more customers when other businesses were forced to close, putting people out of work.

"At first we were getting more people in here who needed loans and we were able to keep people at a safe distance," Brett Fine at Sandels Pawn in Youngstown.

Firearms and Jewelry are among the most pawned items, especially gold. "Because of this I've seen more gold probably in the last few months, so it seems like they're dipping into some things that they're able to get money on to help themselves out a little more," Fine said.

According to Fine, sales also picked up on certain merchandise when the schools had to close. "Computers and video game systems, everybody wants them because they're kids are at home," he said.

Austintown Pawn is doing business through it's drive-up window. Owner Robert Carney says they did a lot of early loans to people waiting for unemployment to be approved. The shop owners said things changed when the stimulus money kicked in.
"We had more pawn redemptions. We had people who pawned stuff a week or two or three weeks ago come back in and redeem them,".

Shop owners say customers have told them it's a blessing that they were able to stay open.
"Your able to give out money to help people and in our case we're able to get some money back, so it was good for everybody really," Fine said.