Businesses and malls in Winnipeg are taking a cautious approach as they ease back into full occupancy limits with COVID-19-related health restrictions loosening.
Under Manitoba’s Phase 3 reopening plan, which came into effect yesterday, occupancy limits of 50 per cent regular capacity or one person per 10 square meters have been removed.
Customers, however, must still maintain two metres’ distance from one another.
“We will certainly still be a controlled environment, it won’t be a free-for-all,” says Nicola Loewen, owner of Mad About Style Boutique.
“We will still control the amount of people coming in, but I think we’re at that point where we feel comfortable with that client interaction,”
Loewen will be opening her doors to walk-in traffic tomorrow for the first time in over three months, although some routines she’s since picked up will be sticking around.
Online shopping with curbside pickup will continue as long as people keep requesting the option, and every article of clothing a customer has tried on or returned will be given a thorough steam cleaning before making it back to the rack.
“It’s a lot in the sense that you get comfortable in one zone and then you have to shift into another zone,” says Loewen.
“You get clients used to that and then you’re continually shifting, so it’s a lot on your mindset.”
Loewen adds that doing appointments only until now has given her a sense of what to expect with the resumption of walk-ins, and customers seem eager to return as well.
“Every week it keeps with more and more interest,” Loewen says.
“I think people are ready to get back to normal and have some form of normalcy in their life.”
Nearby at the Polo Park mall, all the doors into the building are once again open, and customers have full access to the upper floor, which had been restricted somewhat since the lockdown first began to ease in early May, according to general manager Peter Havens.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of stores are going to maintain restricted access into the stores for the first little while, until they get used to the new changes,” says Havens, adding that because of the two-metre distancing requirement, all but the bigger retailers still have restricted access.
“I think everybody is just being very cautious and doing their part to make sure that we’re doing the right things.”
CF Polo Park is currently open 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.
Havens says the hours will remain the same for the rest of June and into July, but as more people return to work and begin looking for later hours, the mall will reevaluate.
It’s a similar story at Kildonan Place, with management telling Global News their hours are “a moving target,” but will definitely be extended in the coming months.
Kildonan Place is currently open 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekends.
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