Anxious awakening
Valley retailers see mixed results as they start to open
Retailers, barbers and salon owners from around metro Phoenix began to emerge from their coronavirus-induced hibernation on Friday, following the most significant relaxing of Gov. Doug Ducey’s stay-at-home order so far.
Many business owners, employees and customers voiced concerns about the future and grappled with new social-distancing and enhanced sanitizing standards.
But most seemed relieved to be back.
Slow going for stores
If retailers were expecting crowds to amass outside their doors, awaiting a starter’s horn to announce the first day of business in a long time, it generally didn’t happen. At many stores, shoppers were sparse.
“They’re trickling in,” said Ava Earnest, general manager of Phoenix Premium Outlets, when the shopping center south of Ahwatukee Foothills opened at 11 a.m. Friday after being closed for seven weeks.
Kim Wessinger, owner of Regency Mod in Old Town Scottsdale, said she had seen a handful of customers at her apothecary shop by early Friday afternoon — the first day the store was open
at that location.
Wessinger said she has built up a loyal customer base from her old location in north Scottsdale that has been supportive through the shutdown. The closure also allowed her to rethink her store’s layout and modify it to maintain appropriate social distancing for customers.
Still, she worries about the future of the area, including the large retail chains at nearby Scottsdale Fashion Square that might be irreparably harmed by the crisis.
Nordstrom this week announced that it will close its full-line Chandler store in August, and many malls and their tenants are struggling.
Just a few hundred feet from Wessinger’s location in Scottsdale, Randi Lee and Holly Billecci had opened their souvenir shop, Kactus Jock.
Lee, the manager, said they were heavily affected by losing out on revenue from March and April.
“It hit us hard,” she said. “Especially because we’re a souvenir shop and need tourists.”
Lee said she worries about customer confidence as concern about the spread of the new coronavirus lingers. She also realizes Arizona’s hot summer months, and slower visitor traffic, lie ahead.
Traffic at most businesses in downtown Chandler was slow despite a steady stream of cars driving through the historic square on Friday afternoon.
“It feels like summertime, which is unusual for this time of year,” said Nell Huddleston, manager of Saba’s Western Wear in downtown Chandler. The spring tourist season is typically one of the busiest for the store, she said.
Huddleston, who has worked at the store for 18 years, said the business has withstood several recessions and “hung in there” over its 100-year history. She hopes this time will prove no different.
A sales assistant wearing a surgical mask spritzed sanitizer on a customer’s hand as he and his son walked into Sibley’s West, a novelty shop in downtown Chandler. The pair looked at a few candles in a display near the door while staff went over new safety protocols.
Owner John Wolfe said traffic was steady throughout the morning, and he was hoping more people would come by to purchase last minute Mother’s Day gifts ahead of the Sunday holiday. Some of the store’s regulars stopped by to shop and share words of encouragement.
“The response from customers has been great,” he said.
Many customers ready for a trim
If customers weren’t exactly beating down the doors of nonessential retailers, many couldn’t wait to take care of grooming matters.
On Friday, the first day barber shops, nail salons and the like were allowed to reopen with restrictions, Joe’s Barber Shop in central Mesa was packed.
“We’ve been slammed since 7:30 this morning,” said barber Chet Arnett about 11:30 a.m., after he had been on his feet for nearly four hours with only a couple of short breaks to get a drink.
But it “feels good,” Arnett admitted through a yellow face mask as he ran his clippers through a client’s hair. “It’s good to be getting back to normal.”
Customer Joel Cree agreed with that sentiment.
“I’m just thankful we can get back to normalcy,” he said. “You don’t think about these things (haircuts) ahead of time, and I wasn’t desperate enough to cut my own hair.”
Business was similarly hopping across town at a Supercuts in Peoria.
“We’re going to be booked for a while,” said Lacey Grigg, the assistant manager, as she booked appointments over the phone between cutting hair. By early in the morning, most openings already were filled for that day and the following day, too. “We’re going to be booked for a while,” she said.
The pace also was active a couple doors down at AZ Nails Spa 101.
Manager David Grady said the salon already was as busy as ever, with appointments taken over the phone throughout the day. “We (had) stayed home with nothing to do,” he said. “We’re very happy to be back to work.”
Customer Tonna Yutze, who went to the salon with her daughter, said she too was happy to see it open. “I want to socialize,” she said.
At Daisy Nails in north-central Mesa, the manicurists all wore face masks and worked behind acrylic shields that had cutouts for the hands of clients. A pedicurist wore a plastic face shield in addition to her mask, and most of the dozen or so stations were empty.
On a typical Friday, every station would have been filled and customers would have been waiting, said manager Van Luong, who has worked at the salon for 17 years.
While Luong said the phone has been ringing constantly since Ducey’s announcement, she was allowing only three to five customers in at a time and staggering appointments to keep the salon mostly empty instead of mostly full.
Getting used to the new normal
Nearly everywhere customers went, they encountered reminders of the new coronavirus outbreak: increased signage encouraging people to follow social-distancing guidelines, more plexiglass partitions, workers frequently offering hand sanitizer to customers, and masks everywhere.
At the newly reopened Phoenix Premium Outlets along Interstate 10 south of Ahwatukee Foothills, management has made many changes designed to limit the spread of the virus.
Increased signage encourages customers and employees to follow social distancing practices. The shopping center has limited occupancy in certain places, spaced out furniture in open areas, closed play areas and taken other steps.
Erika Clary, the owner of the Arcane Hair Parlour in downtown Phoenix and a stylist for nearly 20 years, said the salon now cleans stations between clients, uses fresh capes each time and adds 15 minutes to every appointment to minimize the number of people in the salon at once.
Gilbert Romo, owner of the Velo bicycle shop near downtown Phoenix, made several adjustments to curb the spread of the new coronavirus such as limiting customers to three at a time, disinfecting bikes before and after repairs and closing the coffee shop to ensure social distancing.
The Roosevelt Row neighborhood in downtown Phoenix, where his shop is located, is sprinkled with galleries, restaurants and bars, many of which are closed. But Velo stayed open, as more people seemed to take up bike riding and needed repairs.
“Whatever the reason, people are finding their way to the bicycle industry,” said Romo. “And that’s been a benefit for us.”
But not everyone who was shopping Friday felt like following the guidance.
At a Hobby Lobby store near 75th Avenue and Bell Road, masked employees stood behind plastic barriers at checkout counters as customers, many wearing masks, bought craft supplies.
Amber Fischer wasn’t one of them. “I don’t believe the hype,” said Fischer, who shopped without a mask, adding that she hasn’t changed her routine at all.
“If I was going to have (COVID-19), I would’ve had it by now,” she said.
Feeding on success of others
Many businesses in downtown Chandler rely on foot traffic from neighboring bars and restaurants to draw in customers. They also rely on tourism and had hoped, with the opening of a hotel and restaurant space in the nearby New Square Chandler development in March, that it would draw more people to the area.
Brian Sehner opened his store, Blue Planet Outdoors, about 11 a.m. Friday after more than a month being closed. He hopes that by opening, he can help support his landlord, his employees and other neighboring businesses.
Sales at the clothing store plummeted during the month the store was closed. Sehner estimates they were down about 80%, though he said he’s “too scared” to look at the actual numbers.
“It kind of reminds us of when we first opened and we were unknown,” he said.
Sehner hopes that as restaurants reopen, it will drive more traffic to his shop.
“It’s definitely slower, but people are out,” he said. “It’s encouraging to see cars in the parking lot.”