Indianola retailers are cautiously optimistic, with an emphasis on cautious.
Several boutique stores opened their doors to limited foot traffic on Monday for the first time since Gov. Tate Reeves issued a shelter-in-place order at the beginning of the month.
His most recent executive order, which emphasizes “safer at home” allows for small retail shops to reopen under strict guidelines.
“I saw people yesterday that I haven’t seen in the last month that are normally in here,” Helen Abraham, owner of Indianola’s Abraham’s store told The E-T on Tuesday. “You can tell people are ready to get out and stir.”
Small businesses were arguably the hardest hit during the past month, even as some still conducted curbside services.
Alan and Leanne Silverblatt, who have operated Young Ideas for 46 years in Indianola said their business had all but stopped during the second week of March.
“If this had happened in January or February, we would have been in good shape, because we would have canceled all of our spring merchandise, and we wouldn’t have had to worry about it,” Alan Silverblatt said. “The manufacturers got lucky because 90 percent of our stuff came in before we had time to cancel the rest.”
Silverblatt said he now has a store full of spring merchandise that he cannot move, and fall is uncertain.
“I’m not complaining,” he said. “A lot of people have it a lot worse than we do.”
Young Ideas closed its doors March 9, Silverblatt said.
Kim Maxey, owner of 82 Outlet and Magnolia Marketplace, said she closed two weeks ahead of the original shelter-in-place order.
“It started to get bad, and there were all these unknowns, so we decided for us, our employees and our customers to close,” Maxey said.
The stores reopened briefly before the governor shut non-essential businesses down in early April.
Maxey said she was still able to fill some orders for customers, but there was no way she could compete with big box stores, which were deemed essential and allowed to stay open and sell a lot of the same types of merchandise sold at her two stores.
“The playing field is very unlevel out there,” Maxey said.
Jerome Goldberg, owner of Goldberg’s in Indianola said that he had been doing curbside prior to Monday’s reopening.
“It was not fun having to turn people around at your door,” Goldberg said. “I don’t want to turn a customer around from coming into my store.”
Not Business As Usual
Stores are open, but some operators are making drastic changes to the way they conduct business with customers.
A lot of this stems from Centers for Disease Control guidelines, but most of it is voluntary.
82 Outlet’s Maxey said that the coronavirus hit close to home for her as one of her salesmen from Tupelo contracted COVID-19 and at one time was on a ventilator.
Even with the doors unlocked, Maxey is still trying to limit the number of people in her stores. She has added an additional counter by the register to create more distance between the customer and the employee.
She is also encouraging current customers to make payments over the phone, and she is limiting what her delivery drivers can do at customers’ homes.
“We can get it to your house,” she said. “We will put it in your carport or on your porch, but we are trying not to send our guys in somebody’s house, one to protect them and two to protect the customer.”
Abraham’s has a buzzer installed on its door, and customers must be buzzed in to enter the store.
Helen Abraham said this and other measures are being taken to limit the number of people in the store at one time.
Goldberg said he is not allowing customers in his downtown store without a mask.
“Some don’t have masks, and I don’t let them in the store without a mask right now,” he said.
The Young Ideas owners say they will accommodate the comfort level of the customer.
“We’ll accommodate what everybody’s comfort level is,” Silverblatt said. “Some people have pulled up in their car, and they always call first, and we show them stuff, we’ll put it in a sack, and they’ll come out and pick it up. It’s whatever the customer wants.”
Making Adjustments
Retailers have had to rethink the way they do business during this stretch where foot traffic had almost disappeared.
Young Ideas has always had a strong presence on the internet, especially on social media.
The store also set up an outside clothing rack with a makeshift dressing room as part of its curbside service.
“It has really tested our imagination as far as what we’re doing,” said Leanne Silverblatt. “We’re doing whatever it takes to make somebody comfortable without endangering them or us, but you can’t sit and not do anything.”
Maxey said she has relied on social media heavily during the shelter-in-place period to help move some merchandise and to notify customers when they are open.
Goldberg has utilized Facebook and Instagram heavily to push products, and he has been taking merchandise to the curb for customers as well.
Abraham said the store had launched a website prior to the shutdown, but traffic has picked up in the last month.
“We had it going, but it’s really picked up over the last month to six weeks,” she said.
All are in agreement that if Indianola consumers remain conscious about shopping local, there’s a better chance local businesses like these will survive this downturn.
“All of us really need to be conscious of trying to support local, whether it’s us or our neighbors or our restaurants,” Abraham said. “If we’ll all be mindful of it, it’ll make a difference.”
