Boutiques, in particular, benefit from the expiration of Wake County stay-at-home rules
The expiration of Wake County’s stay-at-home order late Thursday appears unlikely to lead to an immediate new wave of retail businesses reopening under the less restrictive state order, with one exception: boutiques.
For Martha Schneider, who owns the home furnishing store La Maison and floral boutique Trellis at North Hills, that was a signal to reopen her businesses.
“The fact they loosened the retail shops, I felt like that defined what we are again,” Schneider said in a telephone conversation with The News & Observer. “We’re not the ones that get high traffic. For us to be there and be available to our customers, we felt like we could open safely.”
The loosening of restrictions applied only to a narrow segment of businesses, generally retail considered nonessential by both the county and state. The previous Wake County order did not include the state provision that allowed retail businesses to stay open provided they maintained adequate social distancing, setting a higher standard.
It did, however, include a provision that excluded any businesses deemed essential by the state. So while the Wake order technically superseded the state order in some ways, that provision allowed retail businesses specifically identified by the state — booksellers, for one example — to remain open.
“We could have been open to the public this whole time, but in the interest of prioritizing safety for our staff and our customers, we have chosen to remain closed to the public and to focus on shipping books to our customers for free,” Quail Ridge Books general manager Jason Jeffries wrote in an email. “Regarding our eventual reopening, we are looking at things anew every day and will continue to do what we feel is right for all parties involved, as safety is our number one priority.”
Jeffries said that Quail Ridge is planning a phased reopening that starts with contactless curbside pickup and appointment browsing before expanding the number of customers allowed in the store.
Appointment shopping
Many of the high-end clothing boutiques at shopping centers like Cameron Village and North Hills plan to start with appointment shopping for established customers while looking ahead to when the state order is scheduled to expire on May 8.
“We’re not open to the public necessarily, just doing appointments with customers,” said Kayla Anderson, the manager of Uniquities in Cameron Village, in a telephone interview. “We are planning to fully reopen to the public next Saturday.”
Like many, Charlotte’s at North Hills has been selling through its website, Instagram and phone orders, but is planning to open its doors to the public next weekend.
“We’re opening on May 8 with all the restrictions and all the protocols by the state,” assistant manager Anastatia Hollis said in a telephone interview. “We’ll also have one-on-one appointments before the store opens and limit the number of people in the store until most or all of the restrictions are lifted.”
Not everyone is racing to reopen. Deco, a downtown Raleigh shop specializing in local gifts, won’t be opening for walk-in business for several weeks, owner Pam Hawkins Blondin said in an email.
Looking ahead to Mother’s Day
Vermillion, a high-end North Hills women’s boutique, just opened a newly renovated and expanded space in February. But owner Ashley Webb said the growth in online sales — she was curating a virtual trunk show for a designer Friday afternoon and just scheduled another for June — has not only kept all of her employees busy but made getting customers back in the store less of a necessity.
“We’ve been so happy with our business and how we’ve pivoted, we’re kind of sticking to that right now,” Webb said in a telephone interview. “I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Many florists have remained open for curbside pickup and delivery throughout, but Schneider kept Trellis closed while focusing on her interior design business, in part because of issues with her floral supply chain.
Those issues have been resolved, and both Trellis and La Maison are scheduled to reopen for business Thursday.
“As we started getting availability through suppliers, we launched a Mother’s Day campaign (online),” Schneider said. “And then when Wake County loosened its commercial restrictions, we decided to open.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 4:48 PM.
