HOUSTON — For the last two months, the effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 also stopped a lot of businesses.
But on Friday, retailers were permitted to open at 25% capacity.
“It’s been really nice to have our clients come into the store and to let us know they were waiting for this day,” Carlos Peraza said.
Peraza owns Space Montrose. The boutique is only allowing six customers inside at a time.
For them, reopening has come with new options for shoppers: masks, hand sanitizer and curbside pickup.
Staff members inside the store are also wearing masks.
“If they (customers) choose not to wear any, we believe it’s not our place to force them to, but we do have everything available to them,” Peraza said.
On the first weekend back open, a steady stream of customers chose to shop in person.
The local business owner is grateful because supporting them means supporting all the entrepreneurs and artists they work with. Most of which are Texans, too.
“We’ve been in our homes for a while. Just getting a small taste of what could be our lives given back to us is very empowering,” Peraza said.
Retail stores are on the list of several types of businesses allowed to reopen during Phase One of the Open Texas plan.
If the next couple weeks go without a spike in COVID-19 cases, Texas will move onto Phase Two of the Open Texas plan. That will allow stores to increase to 50% capacity.
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