Small business owners cautiously prepare to reopen their stores
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) – The streets of downtown Noblesville are lined with small businesses and shops, but some store owners are taking different approaches as to how they plan to reopen.
Erren West, owner of Logan Village Mall, says she is ready to reopen and spent all weekend preparing and cleaning the store along with her husband Jim West.
“We’ve done some widening in the front area to allow for more space, but we’ve also put the plexiglass up on the counter for customers and we’ve also got gloves for them to use,” said Erren.
Erren also laid out floor tape marking traffic flow within the store.
“I think honestly we’re safer for customers to shop here in our small stores than they are to push a shopping cart around Walmart or Meijer,” added Erren
Logan Village Mall sells goods from 40 vendors and West happily said all 40 will have products in the store on Monday morning.
While Erren shares her excitement for her businesses to operate again, she also says safety is the store’s first concern.
“We want to encourage shoppers to wear masks and stay home if they aren’t feeling well or have underlying conditions. But we are thinking of other ways to offer select hours for our more vulnerable shoppers,” said Erren.
Erren also says she was expecting Governor Holcomb to extend the stay-at-home order until May 15 and was pleasantly surprised.
Friday’s announcement by the Governor also came as a surprise to Allison Behr who owns The Wild Bohemian Boutique just around the corner from Logan Village Mall.
Behr is planning to open Tuesday by appointment only before opening back up Friday.
“We all have to be flexible and do what’s right for our businesses and I really did feel I needed more than two days, so that’s why we’re spending this week cleaning up until Friday,” said Behr.
The stores’ different approaches could be due to their online presence before COVID-19. Erren says her business wasn’t selling any product online, a lesson learned from the pandemic, while Behr was able to scale her online presence quickly.
“We have even been as creative as shopping for customers over FaceTime which has helped,” added Behr.
And while some customers may continue to shop online, the doors at Logan Village Mall will be open for the first time in five weeks.