KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Slowly but surely, retailers are re-opening. On what should be a huge holiday weekend for retail sales in the metro, stores that have been closed for nearly two months are starting to open their doors again.
Many of them are luring shoppers back to brick and mortars with huge sales.
“Oh my gosh, we are so happy to see our customers,” said Mechelle Hulse, the assistant general manager of the Zona Rosa Dillard’s Store.
Inside Dillard’s, merchandise that should have been sold months ago is now more than 70% off the regular price. There are deals on things that are rarely discounted, like cosmetics and Kendra Scott jewelry.
Down the street at Altar’d State, during the store’s shutdown, employees posted videos of their clothing marketed to young women. It worked, because when the Zona Rosa store opened on May 15th, there were lines of customers waiting to snatch up the sales. In order to keep staff and customers safe, the store has implemented quite a few new guidelines.
Only one person is allowed in the dressing room at a time. It’s thoroughly disinfected between customers, and clothes have to be steamed before they go back on the rack. Employees are also wearing masks, allowing only a limited number of customers in the store at one time, and wiping down high traffic areas regularly.
Huge discounts are enough to draw some people back into brick and mortar stores, but it isn’t quite business as usual. There are about a dozen restaurants at Zona Rosa that are either open with capacity limits or doing curbside pickups.
Hours at retail stores are also shortened. Heavenly Olive Oils and Vinegars is a small business that did some online orders and curbside pickup during the shutdown. Now they are only open for about four hours a day.
Right now most retail stores are offering better deals inside their stores then they are offering online, simply because they need to move old merchandise to make way for more. That means deep discounts for consumers who feel comfortable walking through the doors again.
