The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Odds and ends shop ready for reopening
Owner of Ratsy’s set to welcome customers, has made some changes to protect safety of shoppers.
Odds-and-ends gift shop Ratsy’s Store, 27 S. Main St. in Oberlin, is among other retail stores in the state that have opened after May 12.
Ratsy Kemp, owner of the store, said her hours are 1 to 6 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, starting May 13, with a tentative restriction of five people in the business at any time.
Kemp said that number is a test to see if it needs modification.
“I’ll see how it goes,” she said.
Kemp closed her store a few days before March 17, prior to the stay-at-home order from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine was issued and all nonessential businesses closed down.
She said she made the decision when she noticed the streets getting emptier as Oberlin College students left campus.
“They closed down the college, and all the kids were leaving and everybody was starting to get a little nervous,” Kemp said.
In order to still bring in an income, she began selling “fun boxes” filled with an assortment of goodies from her store online.
The boxes were sold on Instagram and paid for through PayPal, but ended up fizzling out because of the work necessary to put them together, Kemp said.
“That was really time consuming and hard to work out,” she said.
While working through the complications of setting up an online shop, Kemp sold reusable face masks that she sewed.
“I had so many people coming in,” she said. “Just from
Facebook and Twitter, I was busy for a month.
“I wasn’t making a lot, but was making enough to pay my bills.”
In late April, Kemp launched her online store at www.ratsysstore.com, which sells a collection of the store’s usual quirky socks, earrings, clothes, buttons and dolls.
Kemp said she’s finally satisfied with her online shop.
“It was just such a relief, because it just seemed more user friendly,” she said.
Now, Kemp’s made the necessary adjustment to her store in order to open May 13.
She reorganized to allow more browsing space and installed a sneeze guard at her desk.
Kemp said she plans to wear a mask in her store and highly recommends her customers to do the same.
Rubbing alcohol to clean
“Is it a risk? Yes, because maybe nobody comes in, or maybe I get sick. But at some point, I think we’ll have to go back to some sort of modified world.”
— Ratsy’s owner Ratsy Kemp
shelves and sanitizer to disinfect hands also will be available, she said.
Kemp said she is “tentatively enthused” about her store opening back up.
“Is it a risk?” she asked. “Yes, because maybe nobody comes in, or maybe I get sick.
“But at some point, I think we’ll have to go back to some sort of modified world.”