Businesses prepare for ‘new normal’
Operators will have to juggle safety rules with business needs
Calgary small businesses are grappling with what their new normal will look like, as the province moves toward allowing a potential reopening of many establishments later this week.
At one Calgary breakfast eatery, for example, customers will be able to check off the options they’d like to see, such as a preference for servers wearing masks.
It’s one way Brekkie is preparing to ease back into its dine-in mode when Phase 1 of Alberta’s economic reopening potentially kicks in on Thursday.
“Customers can check off the choices to let us know ” what they ’d like to see, said operating partner Percilla Gutscher. “There’s also the personal preferences of the staff. Everyone’s comfort levels are quite different and we’ve got to be quite cognizant of that.”
Restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars will likely be able to reopen utilizing a maximum of 50 per cent of their capacity, but Brekkie — in Calgary’s West Springs neighbourhood — probably won’t even launch at that level, to ensure a safer density for staff and customers, said Gutscher.
“We have to look at it longer term. If we open and then have to close down again, it’s going to be a lot harder,” she said, adding table sizes will be kept to small numbers.
Many businesses are deciding that even if they get the green light to reopen on Thursday, they make take a few days to assess the situation.
The operators of the Italian restaurant Cotto will wait until next week to welcome back diners, said co-owner Fiona Di-gennaro, who was busy Monday determining how best to handle the reopening.
It could include bringing customers freshly-sanitized cutlery and napkins in bags, while more strictly staggering customer numbers, she said.
“And it’ll be just me serving to limit exposure; it’s all new territory,” said Di-gennaro.
Staff members, she said, are reluctant to return either from fear of COVID-19 or losing federal emergency benefits.
The provincial government’s half-capacity rule, added Di- Gennaro, will merely mirror the reality the business faced pre-pandemic.
“The economy was so bad, we were probably at 50 per cent before,” she said.
Phase 1 of reopening will also include clothing, furniture and bookstores, hairstylists, summer camps, museums and art galleries, farmers’ markets and daycares.
Some businesses say the province still hasn’t supplied them with proper guidelines on how to safely relaunch.
“A lot of things have been left to interpretation, like what’s enhanced cleaning?” said Brelyn Shannon, marketing and operations manager for shoe and clothing chain Gravity Pope.
She's not even certain if the city will limit the types of business that can resume normal sales in such unprecedented, uncharted waters.
“It feels like we're opening for the first time,” said Shannon.
And that opening, at least initially, will be confined to appointments to reduce exposure to the virus, she said. “We have no idea what the demand will be; we don't want to be overstaffed because we can't afford to,” she said.
Something she and a number of other business operators are more certain about is the use of protective masks by customers.
They'll be mandatory for staff in her Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto stores, and “we're in (internal) talks right now on whether we enforce that with our customers,” she said.
Priya Vedula, who manages the educational toy store Scholar's Choice, on Macleod Trail South, said she'd like to see mask-wearing made mandatory in indoor public spaces.
She'd also welcome more guidance from the province on subjects like customer numbers and cleaning protocols.
“It's a scary situation for everyone and more clear directions from the government would have been helpful,” said Vedula.
Physical distancing, she added, will be a challenge in a store setting where hands-on help for customers is essential.
She also wondered if the lockdown's boost to her store's e-commerce will reduce foot traffic, which could also be thinned by health concerns.
“If customers remain online, why open up if everything's shipped from the warehouse?” said Vedula.
Fair's Fair Books founder George Henderson said he might have to operate more like a library when customers return to his two Calgary locations.
“It's a browsing and book-handling business and we might have to suggest people leave books on the floor once they've taken them off the shelf, so we can clean them up,” he said.
But, he added that 32 years of experience in an ever-shrinking used-book business has forced Fair's Fair to be innovative — an ability that'll be even handier now.
“It's going to be a whole new normal,” said Henderson.
On Monday, the province unveiled an online safety regulations guide for reopening businesses at alberta.ca/biz-connect.aspx.
The measures, which include mandatory wearing of masks by restaurant staff who can't maintain a two-metre distance, were only unveiled this week to ensure businesses were properly consulted, said Economic Development and Trade Minister Tanya Fir.
“We wanted to find the right balance ... and make sure the information is effective useful,” said Fir.