Giving shoppers a taste of normalcy

Tom Milstead tmilstead@torringtontelegram.com
Posted 4/22/20

TORRINGTON – After a month of social distancing, staying home and avoiding stores, many people are looking for ways to escape the monotony – and a group of downtown businesses have come up with what they believe is a safe way to partially rekindle their businesses and provide a welcome distraction for shoppers.

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Giving shoppers a taste of normalcy

Posted

TORRINGTON – After a month of social distancing, staying home and avoiding stores, many people are looking for ways to escape the monotony – and a group of downtown businesses have come up with what they believe is a safe way to partially rekindle their businesses and provide a welcome distraction for shoppers.
The Downtown COVID Escape, a joint venture between downtown retail stores and the Goshen County Economic Development Corporation, is a soft re-opening of businesses that voluntarily shuttered their doors as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. While some businesses, like bars and gyms, were ordered to close by Governor Mark Gordon, retail stores weren’t included in those orders.
And so, with safety as their first priority, Farm Girls Boutique, Home on the Range, Heartland Embroidery and Sunshine Photography will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Those businesses, along with Torrington Office Supply – which has been open for its regular hours – will donate 10 percent of their proceeds during the month of April to Goshen HELP.
Celsie Sussex, of Home on the Range, said the Downtown COVID Escape is important to both shoppers and merchants.
“It’s really important,” she said. “The main thing is that people around here, not just us, need to see that there’s hope that the normal is coming back and that we are wanting to give back to the community that’s done so much for us. Just having our doors open and giving people a safe place to come and relax and do something different for a while is really important to us.”
For several of the shops, the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to find new ways to do business. Taryn Kilty, owner of Farm Girls Boutique, took parts of her business online to reach her customers.

“It’s a very odd, odd time,” Kilty said. “Luckily, we’ve had some people still support us through our online business, as well as people calling to ask. The unknown, as a business owner; that has definitely been hard and challenging.
“When all this happened, I feel like we’ve had to pivot and just figure out different ways that we can serve the community and provide opportunities for people to shop, but not traditionally coming into our brick and mortar stores.
Sussex had to do the same. Her store received it’s spring merchandise, and had to go online to show it off.
“We’ve sold quite a few things on Facebook, and we do appreciate all the people that have shopped on there,” she said. “That’s been a really great tool for us just to stay in contact with everybody.
“We have a ton of new spring stuff they were excited to show people but we just can’t let a bunch of people come at one time.”
Both retailers said that while it will be nice to see their customers for the first time in over a month, safety is their priority. Businesses will restrict the number of shoppers that can be at the store at one time, and employees will be ‘cleaning vigorously,’ Sussex said.
“We’re trying to be just as safe as possible,” Sussex said. “We will be cleaning vigorously and limiting how many shoppers can come in at one time, and we’re trying to go by whatever the health officials in Goshen County are recommending for us.”
It’s important, Kilty said, to provide a safe place for people to shop.
“We’re keeping things clean and having minimal people in the store, but we’re trying to give our community hope and let them know that we’re there for them, and also of course to help our local businesses during this hard time,” Kilty said.
“In this whole thing, the hardest part is the unknown. Nobody really knows. We are going to monitor numbers, but it’s also spacing just like anywhere else. We’re going to have a cleaning regimen.”