National Post (National Edition)
Has shopping for shoes ever felt so much like freedom?
In Quebec, shoppers browsed like it was 2019
• In areas outside of Montreal, cars have begun to fill shopping centre parking lots and, for the first time in more than a month, shoppers are leaving their homes to stock up on more than just food and toilet paper.
In St-Hyacinthe, about an hour’s drive east of Montreal, shoppers flocked to newly opened stores.
Because art supplies, books and printing services were considered non-essential, the BuroPro Citation store attached to the Galleries St-Hyacinthe, a shopping mall, was closed until Monday.
Pascale Langlois, a store supervisor, spent part of last week painstakingly preparing the store for customers. She taped red lines to the floor, prepared a hand-sanitizing station and planned new employee and customer protocols.
At 8 a.m. Monday, people began to show up. Most were already used to obeying social distancing rules and no one had to be told what the taped lines on the floor meant.
“They saw the red line and they waited behind it until we told them to come in,” Langlois said.
Staff were happy to be back to work, Langlois added. One staff member wore a face shield, but most people in the store, customers included, had their faces uncovered. A few wore masks.
People emerged from the store carrying canvases, some had books, while others stocked up on art supplies, readying themselves for more weeks of social distancing. Paint can be bought online, Manon Roy said while waiting in line to check out two bottles, but it’s better to come to the store in person.
“I ran out,” Roy said of the paint. “If I didn’t need it, I wouldn’t have come.”
BuroPro has an exterior entrance. Other stores in the same shopping centre do not. The neighbouring Winners is only accessible from inside and was deserted. Health officials have warned that shoppers shouldn’t be strolling through a mall, potentially spreading COVID-19 over a wider area, so malls remain shut.
Nearby, at SexxxPlus, an erotic boutique, Melodie Paquette, the store supervisor, stood at the counter. The boutique was empty and the parking lot was deserted, but a few customers had trickled in throughout the morning, she said.
Paquette was happy the shop was finally open, adding it was good to return to a sense of normalcy and so far it had been easy to accommodate shoppers while still respecting social distancing.
“People are respectful of the security measures,” she said. “We warn all clients not to touch the products. But we’re an erotic boutique. It’s not here that there’s going to be the biggest rush, either.”
In and around Montreal, even on the South Shore, deserted parking lots surround malls. A few masked staff members enter some stores and occasionally a prospective customer slows down outside of a sports store or a furniture retailer. Under Quebec’s original plan, non-essential businesses in Montreal were supposed to reopen May 11, but that date has now been delayed a week.
“We want to reopen stores in Montreal, but we know that if we reopen and when we’ll reopen stores, we will probably have more cases in our hospitals,” Premier Francois Legault said during the daily pandemic update Monday.
No change has been announced regarding schools reopening on May 19 yet, although Quebec’s public health director, Horacio Arruda, has repeatedly said it will depend on the data and that public health authorities are monitoring the situation in Montreal closely.
In Granby, 100 km southeast of Montreal, small business owners smiled behind counters as customers perused and made purchases.
Ricardo Robles, the owner of ÉcoLivres, a used bookstore on Granby’s main street, said books had become a hot commodity as people sought comfort while spending weeks at home.
“It’s the first day,” Robles added. “There are a few customers. I’m happy. They want to go outside a little bit so they come, choose a couple of books and then come back home.”
Daniel Des Greniers walked among the aisles, looking for something to read.
“It’s pleasant,” he said. “It’s good to be here. It’s a nice shop.”
Down the street at Jules Demers, a clothing shop offering designer wear and wedding attire, co-owner Michael Langlois was offering free masks to customers.
Though the market for high-end gowns and wedding dresses has plummeted, a groundswell of support for local businesses like his — the shop has been in business more than 40 years — was bringing shoppers back.
“We’re really happy to be open,” Demers said, adding that strict social distancing was important. “We have to be really careful because we don’t want to close in future weeks.”
Two doors down, Genevieve Pépin, the co-owner of Bongia, a smoking accessory store, stood behind a glass counter filled with grinders, scales and ashtrays. She’s happy to be back at work, but only allows two people inside the store at a time.
“People are really chill,” she said. “Everyone who comes here is really understanding.”