Time to shop? Idaho retailers can reopen Friday. But some won’t. Here’s what to know.
For the first time in more than a month, the doors at Ennis Fine Furniture will open for business Friday.
“We really don’t know what to expect,” Jeff Ennis, vice president of Ennis Fine Furniture, located at 275 S. 23rd St., said by phone Thursday. “We’re expecting to have some traffic, but probably not like normal.”
Idaho will enter the first stage of Gov. Brad Little’s four-stage recovery plan on Friday. Nonessential stores that have been closed since he issued his stay-home order on March 25 — including most retail shops — will be able to reopen.
Little alerted retailers two weeks ago that if the coronavirus curve stayed low, they could reopen Friday if they followed safety protocols. So they had time to get ready. They have prepared by putting into place practices such as sanitizing surfaces, marking spaces to keep customers 6 feet apart and directing employees to wear face masks.
All are eager for customers to return. But some won’t open right away.
Chains, shopping malls go their own ways
No one answered the phone Thursday at the Boise Towne Square mall, and its website offered no word about reopening.
The Village at Meridian will be open, but not all shops there will be. Calls to 11 stores Thursday went unanswered.
Macy’s, which has a store at Boise Towne Square, said it plans to reopen 68 stores on Monday and aims to have all its roughly 775 stores open in the next six weeks. Attempts to reach the company for comment about the Boise store were unsuccessful.
Best Buy, whose Boise store at 8363 W. Franklin Road offers curbside pickup of items ordered online, says it will gradually begin opening its doors to 200 of its U.S. stores, CNBC reported. Starbucks says 90% of its company-run stores in the U.S. would be open by early June, Forbes reported. Apple, which has a Boise Towne Square store, said it expects “many more” of its stores to reopen in May, Bloomberg reported.
T-shirt shop waits, prepares
Banana Ink, a T-shirt print shop at 214 N. 9th St. in downtown Boise, won’t open until Monday. That will give the staff a few extra days to get ready, General Manager MaKenzie Stephen said.
“We’re putting safety protections in place,” Stephen said by phone. “We’ll limit the number of people allowed in the store and we’re implementing cleaning procedures. We’re putting everything in place to be ready for that.
Banana Ink also operates an online store, so it has been able to fill orders and either ship them or provide curbside service. Business is down, but Stephen said she supports the governor’s restrictions and is glad people have been taking them seriously.
“We’re excited to be able to get back to a more routine schedule,” she said.
Women’s outdoor clothing store expects a slow day
Since the pandemic began in March, Voxn Clothing, a women’s outdoor store at 778 W. Broad St. in downtown Boise, has been making face masks.
“It was such a perfect storm,” owner Erica Becker said. “People need them. People don’t necessarily have sewing machines at home, people don’t have the skills to do it. It’s beneficial for us because we can keep our staff.”
Voxn will open on Friday, but Becker doesn’t expect a lot of business.
“There are so many mixed feelings about things that I think some people will be out and some won’t,” she said.
Running store owner willing to meet customers outside
Bandanna Running and Walking, at 504 W. Main St., has also been offering delivery and curbside pickup for its running shoes and clothing. Owner Rich Harris said he’s looking forward to opening the shop to foot traffic.
One benefit of the pandemic, he said, is that more people are looking to go outside and move.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’ve had more say they haven’t exercised before but I’m going to start,“ Harris said by phone. “We feel good about being here and being able to provide them with the gear to get out the door.”
He said he’s willing to come outside for fittings if customers don’t want to come in the store, where they’re wiping down and disinfecting counters, benches, doors and credit card machines.
“We’re trying to have common sense and judgment,” he said. “We’ll do what makes each customer comfortable and feel safe if they decide to come in the door.”
AAA Idaho: Travel is down, so we’ll wait
AAA Oregon & Idaho doesn’t plan to reopen its Boise office at 7155 W. Denton St. until June 1, spokesman Matthew Conde said by phone. With fewer people traveling, there’s less demand for travel guides and maps.
“Of course, our roadside assistance has been uninterrupted this whole time,” he said by phone.
“We aren’t going to leave someone on the side of the road.”
Skateboard shop owner dismayed by ‘nonessential’ label
The Boardroom, a skateboard and snowboard shop at 2727 W. State St. in Boise, partially reopened April 3, when the statewide stay-at-home order was still in its early weeks and before Little said on April 15 that stores that could provide curbside pickup or delivery could open.
No customers have been allowed inside, owner Chris Heise said by phone.
“We’ve relied on Instagram and Facebook to show folks the products we are trying to sell,” he said.
It will be nice to get back to some semblance of normalcy by reopening the store, he said.
“We are so excited to open up our doors I might kick them open for the heck of it,” Heise said. “We need to get back to work.”
He’s unsure how quickly business will rebound. He said his McCall store won’t reopen until tourism returns.
“I think it’s going to be a little bit slower return,” said Heise, who was dismayed that bicycling was considered an essential mode of transportation but skakeboarding wasn’t. “Anything that moves with wheels has been deemed essential except skateboards.”
Men’s, women’s boutiques stick with private appointments
Shift Boutique, a women’s clothing store, and men’s store Keystone Station, both co-owned by Kelsey Miller, are offering services by private appointment only for the next two weeks. They are limiting the hourlong slots to two people each.
Then they’ll allow up to five people in each store at a time while also offering private appointments.
“We definitely have seen the benefit of the stay-at-home order in flattening the curve,” Miller said by phone. “We want to make sure that we’re helping with that, and not creating an opportunity to revert.”
Shift Boutique, at 807 W. Bannock St., and Keystone Station, at 222 N. 9th St., have sanitizing areas at the front doors, in fitting rooms and at cash register stations. They also offer masks for customers.
“In the best customer service world we’re taking the clothes out of your hand and bringing them into the fitting room,” Miller said. “We are going to not do that, and instead have customers take their own clothes into the dressing room.”
Furniture shop
Ennis Fine Furniture has been in business in Boise since 1946. It also operates stores in Spokane and Kennewick that remain closed for now. A stay-home order there is scheduled to run through May 4, but Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to extend the order Friday, The News Tribune in Tacoma reported.
In a nod to the coronavirus stimulus checks sent out by the federal government, $1,200 for adults and $500 for children, Ennis said it will offer its own stimulus check by paying the sales tax on purchases. The store is also offering special prices to bring customers in.
“I have noticed in the last couple of days more traffic on the road,” Ennis said. “That might be a good sign: the weather is changing and they’ve been stuck in their home for weeks on end and maybe they’re ready to get out.”
“We have large buildings, and everyone will be able to easily social distance,” Ennis said. “We’ll having sanitizing stations and soap, and the sales staff will have masks. We’re trying to make it as comfortable for our customers as possible.”
Statesman reporter Hayley Harding and McClatchy reporter Dawson White contributed.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 6:17 PM.
