KALAMAZOO, MI — Retail spaces and auto showrooms were among businesses reopening their doors around Kalamazoo County and across the state of Michigan Tuesday.
Things may appear much different to shoppers and employees compared to the last time open signs hung in storefront windows in mid-March, but many local shop owners, managers and salespeople were happy to get back to some semblance of normal.
Related: Gatherings of 10 or less, retail by appointment allowed under new Whitmer order
Adhering to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent executive order, businesses along the Kalamazoo Mall and across the county set out hand sanitizer, masks and gloves, put in place social distancing guidelines and prepared to welcome back customers on an appointment-only basis.
For businesses like Gazelle Sports, Satellite Records, and the Spirit of Kalamazoo, storekeepers want people to know that walk-ups are welcome — that is, if the store is not already at their 10-person maximum capacity or don’t already have appointments lined up at that time.
Joe Trupp, manager at Gazelle on the Kalamazoo Mall, said if his store is at capacity, whoever is working will be happy to take down your name and call you as soon as the store is under the limit and has someone available to help you. Masks are required at the store, and are provided for those who don’t have them, he said.
Trupp said the last three weeks have been challenging as the store prepared to reopen. Some of that had to do with the nature of the business and how to handle selling shoes and clothes, he said.
“It’s been a lot of hours and a lot of hard work to come up with our own plan that we were able to put into place pretty quickly,” Trupp said.
“The goal here is to never have something put on somebody or allow somebody to grab something that would be unsafe. Even with trying on clothes, we don’t have dressing rooms right now because we don’t want anyone pulling anything over their face.”
Understanding that customers typically try on multiple pairs of shoes, Trupp said they have a process in place to pull tried-on shoes off the floor, take them downstairs, spray them out and “quarantine” them before returning them to the retail space 48 hours later.
At Satellite Records in Kalamazoo’s Vine Neighborhood, manager Mike Evans said the shop also prepared for its own unique sanitary procedures.
With more than 14,000-plus albums in stock, Evans said it is impossible to disinfect everything every day, but the shop has gloves available for patrons who wish to thumb through records. And if they don’t want to wear gloves, he said, they are requiring shoppers to use hand sanitizer before they browse.
“We have to go through bins as much as they do,” Evans said. “And I don’t want to catch anything as much as the next person doesn’t. I’ve deep cleaned multiple times since we have been closed and re-opened, wiped down the counters and shared spaces multiple times, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Evans, who said the store lost a “significant amount of business” over the past two months, has been the store’s only working employee since March 21. And if it weren’t for a 25-30% increase in online sales, he said, the store would be in pretty big trouble right now.
Satellite, which plans to returns to the regular store hours Thursday, May 28, after two abbreviated days, will be back to full staffing by June 1, Evans said. The manager said he was both excited and anxious about reopening. He said it has been great to see some familiar faces walk through the store’s doors again.
For those not ready to venture into the store, he said Satellite is still offering curbside pickup and will happily ship records to anywhere in the world. To order online, one can visit the company’s inventory at its Discogs page and pay via credit card or PayPal.
Spirit of Kalamazoo owner Kathleen Widner — who runs the store on the Kalamazoo Mall with her husband, Andy Widner — said the store has also stayed afloat with a minimal amount of online orders over the past two months. But aside from coming in once a week to fill those orders, she said, the couple has been staying home.
While things were quiet on their first day, Widner said it was nice to be open again. She said the couple can’t wait to begin welcoming customers on a regular basis again.
As far as safety measures, Widner said the store has a hand-washing station at the front and in addition to all the other required measures put in place, will not be offering ice cream in a cone as they want to limit customer-employee interaction for the time being. Ice cream will instead be available in to-go bowls.
Online orders may work for places like Satellite Records and the Spirit of Kalamazoo, but it is not that simple to pull off a car sale when you cannot test drive a vehicle or close a deal in a dealer showroom.
That has been one of the many challenges salespeople like Stew Robinson at Cole Buick GMC Cadillac in Portage have faced over the past couple months.
Robinson said he was still able to follow up on phone and internet leads during his time away from the showroom floor. Because of that, he was able to close a sale his first day back.
“We’re excited to be able to have people come visit again and be able to help our customers find what they are looking for,” Robinson said. “And while we would love to be able to go from zero to 60 right away, we understand right now we have to be cautious and take things slow. You have to put it in first gear before you can put it in second.”
Robinson said the dealership is taking numerous preventative steps to help keep customers safe and abide by the rules, including sanitizing vehicles after customer test drives.
“The showroom is stocked with hand sanitizers and everyone is wearing a mask and maintaining the six-foot rule,” he said. “And while some people aren’t thrilled about having to do that, you have to make it clear, this is how we have to handle you as a customer right now.
“We can’t jeopardize your health and we cannot jeopardize our business by any means by doing anything incorrectly.”
Also on MLive:
Michigan coronavirus cases climb again after Memorial Day Weekend reporting lull
Gatherings of 10 or less, retail by appointment allowed under new Whitmer order
Michigan platform helps businesses obtain masks, gloves as they prepare to reopen
1,500 tested for coronavirus at Kalamazoo County nursing homes in a single day
Students will return for fall semester, Michigan State University president says
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