Connecticut is just hours away from some businesses reopening, including retail stores whose owners and employees will have to follow certain requirements.
On Tuesday, shoppers and stores were getting ready for the reopening.
“We’ve been shopping on Amazon, but that doesn’t feel like supporting who we should. We’re ready to get back out if there’s protocols and it feels safe,” said Brittany Leghorn, of West Hartford.
“I think if they were limiting people, I would go in and shop around a bit. Just something to do,” said Leghorn’s sister Lauren Bogoian.
Westfarms’ spokesperson Amanda Sirica says their number one concern reopening is the safety of shoppers and merchant employees.
Westfarms says they’ll have intense cleaning protocols throughout the shopping center.
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And they’ll have 22 spots at the mall’s four main doors so interior stores can provide curbside pickup and tend to shoppers who still aren’t comfortable going inside.
“We’re requiring our shoppers as well as our merchant employees to wear face coverings. We’ve also put into place mall-wide safety guidelines including a lot of signage throughout the center, decals on the floor with 6 feet spacing,” said Sirica.
Down the road, mom and pop shops are also getting ready for the reopening.
From the sidewalk, we could see partitions in place at Fleet Feet Cash Registers.
And at Kimberly Boutique, they have signs ready for shoppers and on social media they say they’ll be taking customers my appointment only.
“I just think that so many small businesses rely on customers and we need to keep them,” said Bogian.
Westfarms and many other store representatives we’ve heard from are ready to welcome back shoppers safely.
“We’re looking forward to seeing our shoppers again and getting our employees back to work,” said Sirica.
Westfarms opens Wednesday with a reduced schedule from 11a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Sirica encourages anyone to call the store they plan on going to before they shop to check their hours and make sure that store is even open.
It’s good advice for any retail store you may want to go to in the coming days.
