‘60 Minutes’ came to SC to see how COVID has affected businesses in episode airing soon

Three Greenville business owners will appear on “60 Minutes” on Sunday to talk about America’s changing workforce.

CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker spent several days in Greenville in November and interviewed prominent restaurateur Carl Sobocinski, contractor James Jordon and Kenzie Biggers, who owns a company that provides executive assistant services.

Sobocinski said Greenville was chosen for the story because it is among the top cities in the country that attracted residents fleeing larger cities during the pandemic.

Greenville is in the midst of a public relations campaign called “From here you can change the world,” tapping into an in-migration trend city leaders identified early in the pandemic.

The interviews were filmed at Sobocinski’s Lazy Goat restaurant overlooking the Reedy River in the heart of Greenville’s downtown. Sobocinski’s parent company, Table 301, owns several restaurants including the signature Soby’s, which opened 25 years ago as downtown’s revitalization began in earnest.

Sobocinski said he was asked about the hospitality industry’s difficulty in getting workers to come back after restaurants were closed during the pandemic. Table 301 restaurants were closed for two months.

“Most of our people came back,” he said, largely because, from the start, jobs at Soby’s were considered professional jobs, not something to do until the next gig came along. And, he said, he pays accordingly.

The 400-member workforce is smaller, and they have learned to do more with fewer people, Sobocinski said.

“People realized they can work for themselves,” he said. Some have gone to Uber or Shipd. They’re still in the service industry but setting their own hours now.

One Table 301 restaurant closed during the pandemic, Soby’s on the Side, but another, Camp, opened in a new development where the Greenville News once stood.

Biggers’ business is Worxbee., which provides executive assistants to business owners remotely. She said he started the business in 2015, long before COVID. When she started the business in Atlanta she had an office, but increasingly she saw a physical space was not necessary to have a good business culture.

People who work with her live all over the country and work with their clients remotely.

“W want to cultivate people being happy,” she said. She moved to Greenville in 2017, largely because of the support available for small business.

Jordon’s JCC has worked on construction projects around the Southeast including Shaw Air Force Base, Fort Jackson and Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. He could not be reached for comment.

The “60 Minutes” episode called “The Big Quit” airs at 7 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 1:11 PM.