GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. — Some retail stores got a jump start to Phase 1 of North Carolina's reopening plan Friday morning.
WFMY News 2's Jess Winters captured the happy moments Style Encore in Greensboro unlocked their doors, and welcomed in customers for the first time in six weeks.
"We held our breath, we took a deep breath, we crossed our fingers, we prayed to the gods of shopping and we opened the door," Shannon Kemp, owner of Style Encore explained of the grand reopening moment. "We were really, really excited, it felt really good to be doing that again."
There weren't many lines at stores across the Triad. But owners say that's a good thing, because they still need to adhere to social distancing rules.
"It was wonderful it was like a grand opening," Kristin Reid, Owner of Camel City Boutique in Winston-Salem said.
"This is our livelihood, we were so excited to open," Nicki Johnson, Manager of Camel City Boutique added.
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Friday's retail openings in the Triad proved to be slow, but steady.
"The pace has been really good, so we've been able to manage all of our new cleaning procedures," Kemp explained. "I think people are still being cautious, we didn't have a line but our phone has been ringing off the hook all day."
Customers were ushered in with "welcome back" mats and sanitation stations at Bibs and Kids Boutique off of Battleground Avenue.
Some stores, like Simply Meg's are even providing masks to those who don't have one.
Camel City Boutique put up a barrier when shoppers are ready to check out.
"We got Plexiglas, my uncle and husband actually built this," Reid said.
Disaster relief companies like Servpro of Greensboro North helped retailers with the cleaning process prior to opening.
"We deal with things like fire damage, storm damage, but in this new world we live in now we do a lot of COVID-19 cleanup," Owner of Servpro Britt Holcomb said.
Holcomb said he expects a lot more calls when restaurants and bars start opening up in phase 2.
"Restaurants, when they can open back up, we expect there to be a pretty substantial number of calls saying 'hey come do a sanitizing at my facility so I can advertise to my customers and employees that we’ve done that.'"
Other shops, like Simply Stunning by Divas, is looking forward to a weekend opening.
"It's going to be me feeling like almost like I'm opening for the very first time when I started my business 36 years ago, which was unbelievable excitement," owner of the bridal shop, Kathleen Pickering said.
Pickering has the bubbly ready to go for her weekend opening!
"I'm preparing and yes, we are going to pop bottles, multiple bottles of champagnes for the brides coming in," she exclaimed.
Since phase 1 technically went into effect at 5 p.m. Friday, many stores opted to open over the weekend.
Stores are hoping the combination of folks being cooped up for so long, plus mothers day incentives will boost sales Saturday and Sunday.