Few shoppers at reopening of Fairview Pointe-claire
Montreal-area malls are back in business but far from being back to normal
Shopping malls in the Montreal area were allowed to open Friday, but it will be a while before the stores and their customers are back to normal.
Social distancing wasn’t a problem at Fairview Pointe-claire Friday afternoon because foot traffic was light and many of the 200 stores elected not to open.
“Not all of our stores are ready for Day 1, and that’s fine with us,” said Laurent Bruneau, general manager of the 200-store mall. “We’re not putting any pressure on them. When they’re good and ready, we’ll be glad to have them back. We have about 50 per cent of our stores open and we expect that to ramp up pretty quickly in the coming weeks.”
The question is how quickly the shoppers will return.
“Usually on a Friday at this time of day, we’d see a packed mall,” Bruneau said. “This is really a phased-in approach, and that’s also fine. We had some early shoppers lined up today, but for most people, they’ll come back when they’re ready. We want them to feel safe and come back when it’s the right time.”
The shopping experience is different. Browsing is discouraged and there’s a limit to the number of customers allowed in a store at any one time. Most shoppers arrived at the mall with a purpose.
Vicki Lindsay came to the mall to see her hairdresser for the first time in more than three months.
“I wasn’t interested in the stores,” said the newly coiffed Lindsay. “I came, got my hair done and left.”
Adam Novek and his son Russell came to buy a Nintendo Switch, but the hand-held console is the hot item for gamers this year and they left empty-handed.
“EB Games is closed and we went to Pharmaprix and Best Buy and neither one of them had it,” Novek said.
Most of the shoppers and all the sales clerks were wearing masks, but they aren’t mandatory.
“We considered it, but at the end of the day, we’re going to respect public health guidelines,” Bruneau said. “We do offer them as a courtesy, so if someone comes without a mask, they’re always welcome to pick one up at guest services.”
Anthony Mota, who came to buy a graduation present for a friend, elected not to wear a mask.
“I’m young and if I do get (COVID-19), it won’t be that serious, although I guess I should be worried about passing it to someone else,” Mota said.
There are hand sanitizers at the entrances and reminders about social distancing. Elevators are limited to four passengers with each one hugging a corner.
Bruneau said the mall has hired extra security personnel and beefed up its guest services to ensure that everyone enjoys a safe shopping experience.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that retail sales dropped by 31 per cent in Montreal in April, but Bruneau said it was too early to assess the economic impact on the mall’s tenants.
“We’re still trying to figure it out, but the retailers here were closed for three months,” Bruneau said. “Some of them had online sales, but we’re still figuring out the math.”
In addition to interrupting business, the pandemic halted work on a major facelift for the mall, which first opened in 1965 with 70 stores. Bruneau said some work was restarted last month, but the project will continue into next year.
There will be new floors and ceilings, but the major project will be a transformation of the west end of the mall in the space previously occupied by Sears. The ground floor will be devoted to a food court while Simons will open on the second floor.