‘I miss my customers.’ Hard-hit Sacramento stores ready but anxious about reopening Friday

Terri Rehg, owner of The Art of Toys gift shop in midtown Sacramento, is ready to reopen Friday.

She just has no idea about her customers.

Rehg and other retailers reacted cautiously Monday to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to reopen some stores as long as they limit sales to curbside pickup.

They aren’t sure how much business they can drum up if they can’t let people inside. Nor are they confident that, with unemployment soaring, customers will be in a mood to shop for anything other than the bare essentials they’ve been buying the past few weeks.

“I sell art and toys, and people are buying toilet paper and masks,” Rehg said. “Truly, I’m not sure how I’m going to pull it off.”

Newsom’s announcement relaxes but doesn’t completely rescind the stay-at-home order he signed in mid-March as the coronavirus pandemic struck. Shopping malls must remain closed; restaurants still can’t serve sit-down meals. Service providers such as hair salons also are closed until further notice.

In a nod to mostly rural counties that have been nudging him to reopen the economy — or in some cases, outright defying him — Newsom said he will give local officials some leeway to loosen up the restrictions on business even further. But he said those counties have to submit a “readiness plan” to the state.

The March order, designed to stem the spread of COVID-19, brought much of the economy to a halt. Many experts believe it will be months, if not longer, before the economy fully recovers in California and around the country.

Some merchants said they fear business won’t bounce back nearly quickly enough for them.

“We’re so far behind now, it’s going to be a hard catch-up,” Rehg said. She made some online sales in the early days of the lockdown, but that business quickly petered out.

Others are more confident they can reopen successfully, even under the restrictions Newsom is keeping in place.

“I get at least one phone call a day asking if we do curbside pickup,” said Henry Sketchley, manager of the Strapping gift shop in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood.

In better times, Strapping is packed on weekends with shoppers browsing through Sketchley’s quirky offerings of furniture and Sacramento-themed gifts.

It went online right after Newsom issued his shutdown order, offering free delivery in the neighborhood. The online sales helped pay the rent, and Sketchley said “we’re just glad to survive.” But he said Strapping could use some honest-to-goodness foot traffic.

Merchants in Old Sacramento feel the same way. Their business relies heavily on pedestrians wandering the streets, popping inside the stores and rummaging through the merchandise.

“We’re all boutiques down here, we’re specialty stores,” said Tana Vivian of Blue Nile Art, a gift shop on 2nd Street in Old Sac.

Vivian said she’s been able to survive the lockdown, in part because she secured a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration. Still, she’s anxious for business to return to normal.

“I miss my customers,” she said.

Shoppers love to browse inside

For those merchants who rely heavily on walkup traffic, Newsom’s order left them wondering how quickly customers would return.

“It might be smarter to be appointment-based … if they’re not able to come in and browse,” said Karyss Bollen, owner of My Trendy Trailer, which sells handcrafted jewelry in Folsom’s historic business district.

And if a few shoppers slip through the entrance, Sacramento County’s health services director said the county probably won’t crack down on merchants who allow customers inside.

“It’s probably not particularly enforceable,” said the director, Dr. Peter Beilenson. “We have been relying on social enforcement. I think people are concerned enough about this, they will tread cautiously as things open up.”

Beilenson said Newsom’s decision, which he supports, probably won’t make a huge difference to retailers who’ve been operating curbside all along.

“I’ve seen bookstores selling on the corner,” he said.

Jim Relles, who owns Relles Florist in midtown, does most of his business over the phone or on the web. But he’s been allowing customers inside in small numbers to shop and pick up orders, so long as they wear masks. Flowers, as part of agriculture, has been deemed an essential business, he said.

Relles said his business dropped by a third in March, with business practically coming to a halt for funerals, proms and weddings. Sales have started to perk up as Mother’s Day approaches.

“Because they can’t maybe go visit their mother, or they’ll have to be careful with that, I think people are going to look for other avenues such as flowers to send their love to their mother,” he said.