Downtown Owen Sound stores take different approaches to reopening

As Ontario’s retailers reopen after being closed the past couple of months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Owen Sound is slowly following suit.

While some businesses in the city’s core have started to reopen their doors to customers with added health sand safety measures in place, others are continuing to only fulfil orders online and at the curb.

Margit Berne of Sunpoint was happy to open her doors to customers again last week after being closed for about two months, but she said so far business had been slow.

“We have had some of our regular customers because they want to support us, but it has been really slow,” Berne said Saturday. “Hopefully next week will be better, because other stores are opening up.”

On Tuesday, Ontario moved forward with its stage 1 of reopening the economy, allowing retail stores with a street level entrance to welcome in customers, with limited capacity and strict public health measures in place.

Berne had markings on her store floor reminding people to keep six feet apart and was wearing a mask on Saturday afternoon as she helped a customer pick out some clothing.

She said she hasn’t been doing online sales because a big part of her customer base are older clientele who don’t do a lot of online shopping.

“The older generation they don’t like it,” she said. “They like to try on and feel.”

She said it has been good to get the doors open again, but it would be nice to see more customers coming into the store, adding that business had been slower in the months before the pandemic and attributed that to the reconstruction of the 10^th Street bridge

“I think it is a bit confusing too. I don’t think they know that we are open and they still think it is curbside pickup,” she said, adding the warmer weather might help encourage people to come by to pick up some summer wear.

The tanning beds remain closed at Sunpoint, but Berne is hopeful those will be allowed to open shortly in the next stage of the the government’s reopening plan.

Jim Fulford of Fulfords was actually given the green light to welcome in customers on May 9, when the province allowed hardware stores to reopen along with safety supply stores. Restaurants and bars still haven’t received the OK for dine-in customers, while businesses that require close contact between the provider and clients, such as barbers, hair salons and nail salons also remain closed.

Downtown Owen Sound on Saturday, May 23, 2020. Rob Gowan The Sun Times

Fulford said they had been open for online orders as well as curbside pickup the past couple of months, but that was a lot of work and it is nice to open the doors again for customers. He said everyone is different, but people are slowly coming back.

“A lot of people are happy to be able to come in and get things,” Fulford said. “It is easier for both the customer and our staff.”

While their doors were closed, they had customers accessing their Fulfords.com website, RONA.ca website as well as phone-in orders and doorbells customers. It made for a lot of running for far fewer sales.

“We are a full-service business so it is very difficult when people can’t come in and look and see the different types of products,” said Fulford. “Certainly that helps.”

Fulford said they have taken a number of health and safety steps to meet public health requirements, including plexiglass shields at the till, hand sanitizer throughout the store, some wider isles, and directional arrows. There are constant reminders for people to social distance, from signs at entrances to tags that staff wear.

They have also been increasing their hours. They are now open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and remain closed Wednesdays and Sundays.

“We have had to learn real quick because we didn’t shut things down,” Fulford said. “We just had to adapt as we went.”

Deb Haswell of The Rocking Horse has also had to do some adapting as they have shifted to only online sales and curbside pickup.

Haswell said they have decided to delay reopening their doors as they ensure safety measures are in place at the store, including proper signage, masks, and markings on the floors.

“It is such a personal shop that we really shop with the customer,” said Haswell. “The droplet transmission in the big concern and we want to make sure we have really good systems in place, so we are working on those.”

Haswell said the community has been amazingly supportive throughout the pandemic period. They have been doing online sales, curbside pickup at their back door and people can book appointments to do facetime shopping.

They have also partnered with Sugar Dust Baking to offer up a packages for special events such as birthdays and one for Father’s Day.

“That seems to really help people because we put everything together, we gift wrap it, get the cupcakes and then deliver everything right to their house,” she said. “It is helping them maintain their physical isolation as well, but allows for some celebration for special days, especially birthdays for children.

“It is really important to keep as much as we can sort of normal.”

Cody Hawes of the Milk Maid has not yet reopened her doors for the public to come inside, but is preparing for that to happen, probably sometime around the first week of June.

“I am in the process of getting PPE for staff and remodelling the store a bit to go forward with COVID,” said Hawes.

When they do open, the business will be operating under a new model, no longer offering prepared foods and without a seating area.

“The store will essentially be just a retail space and a deli-style store where I am selling my cheese and my sliced cured meats,” said Hawes. “I am cutting baking and coffee and table service from my business model because it is not a very big place, and it doesn’t really make sense to maintain the labour that goes with table service when I would have to reduce the amount of seating I have.”

Since the pandemic forced them to close their doors, they opened an online store and have been fulfilling online and call-in orders, with curbside pickup as well as delivery for orders over $75.

“It has been a really great experience,” she said. “It is something I have avoided all along, but it has been a great aspect of the business.”

Dave Parsons, owner of Parsons Foto Source and chair of the Owen Sound Downtown Improvement Area, said he isn’t yet opening his doors to customers and plans to continue on with online and phone-in orders, along with curbside pickup and delivery.

Parsons said the decision to keep their doors closed is both the logistics of implementing all the safety measures required as well as a personal one due to a family member’s health.

And while customers aren’t coming through the shop doors, Parsons is still doing what he can to provide top notch customer service. When someone calls looking for an item, he will meet them outside the store to try out an item. What they don’t buy gets cleaned and put back.

“Some are asking if we are letting people in and when I say, ‘no’ they say that is good,” Parsons said. “They are feeling somewhat insecure about opening up the store.”

Parsons said with the province beginning to allow some retail businesses to reopen the perception has changed and they have been fielding more calls from customers over the past week.

“We have been able to accommodate everyone,” said Parsons. “But online has increased substantially and I am not going to say our sales are what they were a year ago for the month of May, but they are not bad.”

Parsons said COVID-19 has been another obstacle for downtown businesses, but their strengths are still there in providing the best customer service possible and sometimes a product that nobody else has.

“Our strength is the knowledge that we have about the product we have and the services we are able to offer,” said Parsons.

“I believe we will come out the other end of this and there will be some changes, but those stores that have evolved and are able to kind of meander through this pandemic will come out the other side stronger and certainly will have made some changes in their business such that they will be able to carry on regardless.”