Fresno stores started Phase 1 of city’s reopening plan. Here’s how it went
Across Fresno on Monday, shoppers picked up bottles of vodka at liquor stores and browsed car lots for the first time since non-essential businesses were ordered closed in mid March.
It was the first day the city started to ease restrictions on a handful of “authorized” retailers, plans it announced last week, as it continues to deal with coronavirus.
Certain stores were allowed to reopen for the first time – with modifications – and others were allowed to do contactless curbside pickup and delivery in phase one of the city’s reopening plan.
Horn Photo near Blackstone and Nees avenues reopened its doors to the public, allowing only eight people in a time, said owner Stan Grosz.
“It’s just good to get back in business,” he said. “It’s nice to be doing film and restoration and seeing some normalcy. It feels good.”
Business was steady, he said, with between six and eight people in the store at a time. The store looked a little different, with everyone wearing masks, and lots of signage about social distancing.
But it was “no big deal,” Grosz said. “Everybody is already trained to stay back, everybody is pretty respectful in keeping their distance.”
The rules
The camera store was among several categories of stores allowed to physically open their doors because they are considered low-risk. Other categories included: auto, truck, boat, motorcycle, RV and mobile home dealers, furniture stores, electronics and camera stores, spa and pool stores, lawn and garden equipment stores, new construction, building and remodeling supply stores, and auctions.
The stores can only allow one customer to enter per 500 square feet of space.
Customers and employees are still required to wear facial coverings such as masks when visiting businesses.
The emergency order also says “businesses shall not allow entry of any individual who is not wearing a protective facial covering,” unless that person is under age 2 or has a medical condition that precludes wearing a mask.
Other requirements placed on these businesses include: marking off six-foot increments where people line up, including outside the business; providing hand sanitizer or soap and water near the entrance and in areas where lots of people interact; providing contactless payment systems or disinfecting keypads, pens and devices after each use; disinfecting high-touch surfaces frequently; and screening employees for illness daily.
Curbside
Some retailers were back in business for curbside pickup and delivery for the first time in weeks.
Both BevMo! and Total Wine & More in Fresno started doing curbside service. At BevMo!, customers ordered online and picked up purchases at a table outside the store.
Both stores had been closed, even as the BevMo! in Clovis was open for curbside service and delivery because of different rules in the two cities.
Other stores, like A Book Barn, Crazy Squirrel Games & Toys, even HUSTLER Hollywood started offering curbside pickup Monday.
For some places, opening the doors was an incremental step.
At Fresno Acura, customers can now browse the car lot and come into the showroom, said Ellena Woodhams, compliance and outreach director.
“For us not to tell a customer to leave as soon as they walk on the lot, that makes things a lot easier, as opposed to saying, ‘No, go home and call us,’” she said.
Things still aren’t back to normal, though.
Customers still can’t do test drives with a salesman, but they can borrow a car with an agreement. Instead of sitting in an office with an employee, customers fill out credit applications online, and price negotiations are handled over the phone or email. Cars are delivered and sanitized before the keys are handed over.
Fresno can slow or roll back reopenings if there is a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases that can be tied to easing restrictions, or if the local healthcare system is predicted to reach capacity.
Said Mayor Lee Brand in an emailed statement: “I was a business owner for over 40 years and I feel the pain of everyone who has ever invested time, money and sweat to run a business. I spend every minute of every waking hour of the day working towards getting businesses back open and getting people back to work and today is the first giant step toward restoring Fresno’s economy.”
