GREENSBORO, N.C. — Businesses are looking forward to the easing of restrictions set to go into effect Friday, May 8, but some say it comes with a lot of anxiety, too.
"There’s always uncertainty about OK, what does this look like when we do open up our doors? Are we going to have another outbreak? There’s lots of what-ifs," said Meg Strader, owner of Simply Meg's boutique on Battleground Avenue.
Strader's business has been closed for at least a month. She said she is excited to reopen Friday, but not without health and safety measures in place.
"We will be wearing masks and gloves. I am going to have people who come in, we will have masks and gloves available if they don’t have them on them," said Strader. "We will be limiting the amount of people in the store and we also will be continuing to clean, following all the rules and regulations for that."
Strader's sister, Anna Cross, owns a retail store right next door called Bibs and Kids.
Cross said she and her sister have been carrying each other through this process.
"We have talked and last night, we have strategized together, we have tried to put our ideas together on how we could," said Cross.
Cross said she will be implementing similar health and safety measures, like putting stickers down for social distancing and having masks and gloves in her store.
Cross and Strader said they will also allow people to set up appointments to shop alone if they don't feel comfortable being around others in the store.
"Definitely we were excited as we’ve been anxious and trying to move back to some sort of normalcy, although this will be a whole new normal," said Cross.
With all the stressors at hand, Cross said they're going to take things day by day, and look forward to seeing their customers again.
Strader said she closed doors to her business before she was ordered to. In the meantime, she's counted on online sales to carry her business.
"April was a blow for us considering we lost Easter, we lost spring break trips. People just looking to finally change their closets over. So, it was a major blow for sure," said Strader.
But even with sales down, Strader and Cross said the community still came through to support local businesses.
"The community has truly reached out. It’s been so apparent to me and so apparent to other small business owners that I’ve talked with how people truly have tried to shop with us first because they said they wanted to make sure that we knew that we were loved and trying to be supported and really just trying to keep the economy local," said Strader.
"Even though this has been so hard I'm thankful for each and every customer," said Cross.