Most Placer County stores are allowed to reopen. So why are shopping centers still closed?

Looking forward to a little retail therapy after weeks of staying indoors, Vicky Le made the drive up from Sacramento to Roseville’s Westfield Galleria on Wednesday morning.

She had hoped the major shopping center would be open. After all, she heard on the news that most stores in Placer County were given the green light by California Gov. Gavin Newsom the previous day to start up business again. Instead, she was met with a locked door.

“Now I have to go back home,” Le said, standing outside the entrance. “Nothing we can do about this. No more fun.”

Placer County is one of a dozen Northern California counties that have been allowed to reopen restaurants and shopping malls this week, in large part because coronavirus infections and deaths have slowed in those more rural and suburban areas.

On Wednesday morning, the Sacramento region’s largest shopping district remained mostly closed. Westfield Galleria mall announced Wednesday afternoon it planned to reopen for in-person shopping May 22.

While Le is eager for that big moment, others, such as Roseville resident Peggy Mabes, are concerned. Reopening major shopping areas will cause more people to come in closer contact with one another amid what is a still-ongoing societal health crisis that many say could re-erupt.

“I need to keep more of a low profile,” Mabes said, as she walked her dog Sadie through the Fountains shopping center.

In daily press briefings, Newsom has repeatedly emphasized his desire for science, data and safety precautions to lead the way toward a reopened California.

“None of this means anything if customers don’t feel safe. And none of this matters if employees don’t feel safe and don’t want to come back to work,” Newsom said Tuesday.

But Newsom has begun allowing counties with low infection and death rates — and the ability to contain a surge in cases — to reopen earlier than the rest of the state. Dozens of counties started submitting so-called “attestations” to the California Department of Public Health over the weekend.

El Dorado and Butte counties were the first to get the all-clear to reopen fully into Phase 2 of reopening this week, and in the Sacramento region Placer, El Dorado, Nevada, Yuba and Sutter counties have also been cleared to allow for dine-in restaurant service and in-person shopping at malls.

Among those, Placer is the largest and most urban by far, a county where 170 people have been infected and eight have been killed so far by the virus.

It is also a business and retail hub that suffered notably in the shutdown. The Galleria alone generates about $5 million in annual sales tax revenue for Roseville, according to the city’s chief financial officer Dennis Kauffman.

“These businesses have been either shut down or hanging on by a thin margin,” county board chair Bonnie Gore previously told The Bee. “To generate more business for their employees, for themselves, that’s huge for our local economy.”

Gore said the Placer County public health office is working with Westfield “directly to ensure a safe reopening. We appreciate their team being deliberate in their steps to help protect shoppers so they can welcome them back to the Galleria. This is a huge boost for our local economy.”

Businesses in California open slowly

Despite the economic pressure, some businesses are attempting to ease more slowly into a return to normalcy.

Mexican restaurant Zócalo, in the nearby Fountains at Roseville shopping area, is sticking with to-go orders for now, said manager Colin Westmoreland. When they do decide to reopen for dine-in service, servers will likely sit customers strictly out on the patio.

“I got four phone calls this morning from people asking if we’re open for dining,” Westmoreland said. “We do know people want to come.”

Newcastle Classics, a boutique store specializing in baby swaddles and blankets, was one of the few retailers to open its doors for customers Wednesday.

The owner, Crystal Lake, said sales have gone down 90 percent over the last few weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing stay-at-home orders.

“Last week, I thought there’s no way we can survive another month,” Lake said.

Being allowed to reopen feels like a blessing, she said. But Lake said she’s still worried: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, if people are going to be willing to spend money right away,” she said.

Outside the still-closed Galleria, Yuriko Moody, an area manager for the Japanese dollar store Daiso, stood next to two carts piled high with soda and snacks.

“They’re almost expired, so we’re transferring to other stores to sell before they expire,” Moody said, as she loaded a car with Karamucho chips and bottles of Calpico. “We did it last month too.”

The governor was asked at his noon Wednesday press conference if he is concerned that people from “closed” counties might flock to the handful of counties where restaurants and stores are now allowed open.

He said that is a concern, suggesting it could lead to residents carrying viral infections from place to place. For that reason, the state’s guidelines continue to discourage people from going to other counties for non-essential purposes — for example, tourist-type travel to the Lake Tahoe area.

”Going in and out of counties would defeat the point of having county variations,” Newsom said.

He said, however, the state faces a bigger challenge when it reopens a dense, urban environment that is next to rural counties. In those instances, he suggested the state would be more concerned about intermingling of rural and urban populations.

Sacramento County, the closest urban center to many of the reopened counties, has not yet filed its attestation documents with the state. Sacramento County officials do not expect to do that until next week, but said they hope to win a quick green light from the state then.

When will Westfield Galleria in Roseville reopen?

Westfield Galleria at Roseville will reopen for in-person shopping May 22, the mall announced Wednesday afternoon.

“We are excited to open our doors again to the Placer County community as we begin our initial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said the mall’s senior general manager Jeff Richardson in a statement.

The region’s largest shopping mall will open with modified hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

New government-mandated health and safety protocols will also be in full force at the mall, such as increased cleanings around high-touch areas like restrooms and water fountains, and more hand sanitizer and hand washing stations.

The mall will be “monitoring and controlling” the number of guests entering the mall, according to the announcement, but it’s unclear whether there will be a strict limit on how many are allowed to shop at one time.

“We are working closely with local officials and other relevant community groups to provide a healthy, clean and safe environment for our customers, tenants and employees,” Richardson said. “(We) are committed to providing the best experience possible as business begins to operate at the center.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 2:51 PM.