A slow restart
Customers making no rush to return to shopping centers
Before reopening Hemline, her women’s clothing boutique, on Friday, Shannon Martin had her space professionally cleaned and disinfected. She placed disposable masks, hand sanitizer and gloves at the door for customers. And she waited.
By Saturday, business was surprisingly good.
Across town in River Oaks District, the general manager of Moreau Paris, a luxury leather brand selling French handmade goods, made similar preparations. By Monday afternoon, only two customers had visited the store.
The results of Gov. Greg Abbott’s partial reopening of the state’s economy by allowing retailers and restaurants to reopen on Friday were mixed. Many shops never even opened.
A survey of about 900 businesses conducted by the Greater Houston Partnership found 19 percent of retail and restaurant respondents said they were fully open on Friday; 37 percent said they were partially open; and 44 percent reported being closed. Some may never return. “For those retailers struggling prior to COVID-19, this may be the final straw,” said Patrick Jankowski, the organization’s senior vice president of research.
Texas’ stay-at-home order expired Friday, and nonessential retailers were allowed to reopen using social distancing protocols and at 25 percent capacity, which, generally, was not a problem.
The number of shoppers that visited Tootsies, a designer clothing store at the corner of Westheimer and
Kirby Drive, was about 20 percent of what it was last year over the same weekend.
Owner Norman Lewis said those who came in were a mix of shoppers there to pick up specific items and those wanting to get out of the house to see something new. Time will tell on when and how shopping recovers, Lewis said.
“The three days we’ve been open doesn’t tell us a lot,” he said. “I think where we’ll be back to the new normal that everybody talks about is probably Labor Day, in that September range.”
Thy Nguyen, owner of Focus Optical, reopened her eye clinic in The Woodlands on Friday after closing on March 18. Her industry is considered essential, but she also has a retail element to her business through sales of glasses, sunglasses and contacts.
“You can feel that people are ready to get out and they need to take care of what they need to take care of,” she said. “There was definitely demand and a high amount of calls from people wanting and needing to come in.”
She’s implemented a new sanitizing protocol and is allowing only five people in the store at once. Doctors are seeing only one patient an hour.
On Monday, Nguyen opened her second location. It’s in a new building just south of The Woodlands in Springwoods Village. Her clients appreciated the newness.
“A lot of the patients that came in today said ‘I’m glad everything’s clean,’ ” she said.
Many of the retailers that reopened last week had adapted their businesses to accommodate customers while their stores were closed.
Hemline, a national franchise, rolled out a program where its customers could fill out an online survey and be mailed a box of clothes and accessories that matched their preferences.
Martin, owner of the CityCentre store and one in the Heights, said the program will continue.
“People are more cautious,” she said. “It’ll take some time for people to feel 100 percent comfortable coming out.”