Local retail stores across the province opened their doors Tuesday as part of Phase 2 in the Reopen Saskatchewan Plan. (ID 180580511 © Philip Steury | Dreamstime.com)

By Martin Martinson

local business

Local retailers happy to re-open doors, return to business

May 19, 2020 | 4:59 PM

As phase two of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan takes effect Tuesday, retail stores across the province are opening their doors for business once again.

Among the stores getting back in the swing of things in the Battlefords’ community, is FF2 Fashion in the Discovery Co-op Mall, which opened their doors at noon.

Manager of FF2 Fashion, Tammy Ramsay, said she and her staff have been looking forward to re-opening for some time now, adding if the first day is any indication, they haven’t been the only ones.

“[Both myself] and my staff, are really excited,” Ramsay said. “We have had probably 20-30 phone calls this morning, as well as numerous texts wondering what the protocol will be and that kind of thing. “We are super grateful for the community support for sure, and have safety measures in place for not only our staff, but our wonderful customers as well.”

Those protocols will include new cleaning procedures to ensure counterpaces and other high-traffic surface areas are wiped down regularly, as well as a cap on the number of people allowed within the store at a given time.

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Ramsay said perhaps the latter will be the biggest adjustment, as the store is regularly busy, and used to ‘hustling and bustling in all areas.’ However, to help compensate for the capacity changes, FF2 is encouraging people to also check out the online store, where they can shop from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

“First and foremost, before the sales, everyone’s safety is what’s most important,” Ramsay said. “So even if people are sick or not feeling well, by all means they can go online and do some online shopping.”

Not far down the road, Round 2 clothing also re-opened their doors Tuesday, for the first time since the pandemic restrictions hit a couple of months ago.

Owner of Round 2 Clothing, Carmen Hogger, said the chance to re-open came not a moment too soon.

“It was the longest two months I have had in quite awhile, but I guess we all had some time to get our houses nice and clean and all our yard work done,” she said with a laugh. Hogger then added with all sincerity, both herself and the staff are just happy to be back and up and running once again.

She said because Round 2 is a smaller store, adhering to the provincial guidelines has been a pretty minor adjustment, making for a very smooth transition.

“We’re not a huge store, so we [don’t usually] get a large number of people in at one time, and everyone’s been really good at keeping their distance from one another and sanitizing at the front counter so it’s been going well,” she said. People are very good about doing it without having to [be reminded] and I guess because it’s been the norm the last two months, everyone’s used to it; it’s just automatic.”

Both Ramsay and Hogger said they are grateful for the eager response shown by the community, their respective businesses have received.

“I think the community support has been really good,” Hogger said. “A lot of people have reached out on Facebook saying they’re happy to hear we’re open, and then we also had people here at the door before we even opened today waiting to come in, so it’s been good that way. We’ve missed our customers as much as our customers have missed us.”

To learn more about the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan, click here.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1