Sacramento-area small retailers plan how to reopen when coronavirus restrictions ease
California could be weeks away from a thaw in the statewide stay-at-home lockdown, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday, promising “meaningful modifications” to reopen businesses.
“We believe we are weeks, not months, away” from the changes, part of a four-phase plan to reopen retail businesses, schools and other elements of California society.
Nearly two months into the statewide shutdown, small Sacramento-area retailers are busily plotting out how those changes will play out on the sales floor, rethinking everything from how to greet customers and accept payment; to redefining shopping experiences in what one Sacramento shop owner calls “the new order.”
Private, by-appointment shopping will be part of the rollout at Identity, the J Street boutique owned by Stephanie Bozzalla and fiancé Shane Twilla. Masks will be offered to Identity’s shoppers.
“Masks are going to be here to stay for awhile,” she said. “In just six weeks, everybody’s conformed to this.”
The pair added one-on-one shopping to their menu in February; offered the personal shopper perk online during the lockdown; and are poised to reintroduce it – 60 minutes at a time – when the doors reopen.
“We’ve already had a positive experience, so we’ll have a nice transition into the new order,” Bozzalla said.
A second location in Sacramento’s Downtown Commons opened in October and will offer curbside pickup, Bozzalla said.
Bozzalla and Twilla live downtown and are excited by the city’s gathering momentum. Two months into the shutdown, she calls the locked down downtown “eerie” and hopes it can return.
“I want it to get back to the city that it once was,” Bozzalla said. “I hope we can continue that.”
For reopening to happen, testing and hospital capacity remain pressing issues and though Newsom insists data and science, not politics, will rule on any decision, county leaders and everyday Californians alike are showing signs of chafe under the stay-at-home guidelines even as the governor preaches patience.
Business owners, too. Bozzalla and florist Deanne Ireland, owner of Nina’s Flowers and Gifts in Elk Grove, have managed thanks to their online sales.
But at Nina’s, now 33 years in business, Ireland and her employees are looking to Mother’s Day and to the day – soon, they hope – when they can unlock the shop’s doors.
“We’re hoping something will happen sometime before Mother’s Day,” Ireland said. “At first, we didn’t know what to do – the (stay-at-home) orders weren’t really clear. Everyone was in a bit of shock. The phone wasn’t ringing at all. Then events canceled – junior balls, senior proms – it was upsetting. Since then, we’ve been getting calls.”
Ireland is now planning on how to handle once second-nature scenarios in this new social distancing landscape, such as greeting customers, handling cash, making deliveries and even where to stand on the floor of her small Elk Grove Boulevard shop.
“We’re going to have to have a person at the door. We probably will stick to some kind of measure to allow only one to two people inside,” Ireland said Tuesday. “We talk about how we’re going to handle it. It’s a business that’s always been personal. We have customers who hug us.”
Ireland’s voice caught for a split-second before she added, “But we have to be careful.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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