Are people shopping at reopened Hamilton businesses?

Small businesses who were left reeling in the financial fallout of COVID-19 are slowly beginning to open their doors again, ushering in a new, unfamiliar form of commerce where customer safety takes precedence over traffic and revenue.

Most retail stores with street entrances in Ontario were allowed to reopen Tuesday as part of the first phase of the province's slow and methodical economic recovery plan.

It's a directive many Hamilton businesses, whose bottom lines were hit hard by the pandemic-stricken market, accepted with open arms. But whether it will stick - and to what extent the shopping experience will change - remains fluid.

The Spectator spoke to five small businesses across the city who reopened to customers within the past week. All have deployed safety measures - the main ones being tape markers and store capacities to enforce physical distance - but each took a different approach.

That's likely begot of what some owners say were vague guidelines regarding customer safety put forth by the province.

The province gave us options, but nothing was really mandatory (except for distancing and sanitizer)," said Aimee Cline, who opened her niche refurbished furniture store, Vintage Charm, for the first time Friday in its new location.

Indeed, more than 90 sector-specific guidelines to help businesses safely reopen were made available on the province's website last week. But save for a handful of mandatory regulations, the list of guidelines are just that: recommendations, options.

Cline's Locke Street locale, for instance, allows five customers to shop in its 1,000-square-foot location at a time.

But if we were to follow the province's (rule of) one customer per 43 square feet, that would be around 20 to 25 customers at a time," Cline said, noting the current figure of five seemed more sensible and sympathetic to customers' renewed trepidations about in-store shopping.

Vintage Charm leaves its door open to limit the use of high-touch surface areas, and it regularly sanitizes products that were used by customers.

So, too, does Picks and Sticks Music, an instrument store down the block that boasts a three-customer capacity. They offer masks and gloves at the door, available to those who feel comfortable using, but haven't yet made them mandatory for entry.

Owner Jamie Reid is also encouraging customers to veer away from the once-mainstay just browsing" shop experience.

If someone comes in and wants to try playing a guitar, we have to put them in a different area to not affect (customer) flow," said Reid, whose business revenue has slipped 50 per cent amid the health crisis.

Reid agreed the province's retail regulations were vague, but said he's not complaining." The store has been able to transition more than 50 per cent of its music lesson customer base to remote video.

And the government helped out with (subsidies) for small businesses," he said. What we miss out on is in the profits."

For Rachelle Lake, owner of clothing shop Retro Vintage, profits can mean the difference between staying afloat and going bust.

The 23-year-old opened her Barton Street East store last June. Sales finally began to pick up around early March, at the outset of the pandemic. Then everything kind of stopped, of course," Lake said, noting her business has been able to manage by way of online commerce.

Retro Vintage, which requires both mask and gloves for entry, has seen about four to five customers a day since opening Tuesday. Lake thinks the reduced traffic is likely a product of people's continued, though understandable, reluctance to consider in-store shopping normal again.

Other businesses feel that reduced traffic has more specific causation links.

We're nowhere near the number we used to see," said John Arruda, owner of the athletic goods store Play It Again Sports. And we're in a tough predicament because we sell sports equipment ... but there's no sports."

The Upper James Street front has seen sales drop 75 per cent, with the most in-demand items being golf or in-line skating products. Since opening Tuesday, Arruda said the shop as seen about 20 to 30 people come through its doors, which are replete with free gloves and sanitizer. But people are still hesitant to come."

Meanwhile, on James Street North, Chris Detakacsy was surprised when more than a dozen people showed up to her pottery and book shop, STORE, on Friday. It was the first time she opened since mid-March.

It was better than I thought because I was expecting no people," Detakacsy said. The store's inventory, like sculptural pieces and literature, are often prone to being high-touch areas, and that could heighten customers' anxiety, she added.

Detakacsy sanitizes products after use, and often encourages customers to refrain touching if possible. But reduced traffic, she said, likely has more to do with the current retail environment rather than inventory or sanitary standards.

Until you get enough businesses open, less people will come," she said. I expect it to be slow, but it will come back. Eventually."

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com