It’s the busiest time of the year, but this retailer has stopped in-person shopping.
In any other year, it would be the most wonderful time of the year for Charlotte’s small business retailers. But this is 2020, and one popular South End store has made the difficult decision to close its doors to in-person shopping this holiday season.
There have been no known cases of COVID-19 among its staff, 704 Shop wrote in an email to its customers on Monday morning. The decision to keep customers from shopping inside the store is a preventative measure, stated the email, which was signed by Scott Wooten, Jerri Shephard and Chris Moxley.
“Obviously, this is a decision we have not taken lightly as the next few weeks are typically the busiest time of the entire year for us, especially for in-store shopping and our bottom line. However, given the sharp rises in Covid-19 cases and our deep passion for our staff, we refuse to put profit over our people,” the co-owners wrote.
Moxley told CharlotteFive, “The decision came down to the fact that as business owners, we’re constantly paying attention to how the virus is doing, community spread, case counts and whether we’re headed in the right direction. And with the way cases are spiking right now, and have been continuously going up as of late, we took into account potential spreads that could come out of the holiday weekend and the tremendous amounts of travel that happened over Thanksgiving.
“The health care professionals are all saying it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. And so, when you layer on the fact that typically this time of year we have a lot of foot traffic at the store, you end up with a situation that’s probably not a safe environment for our employees,” Moxley said.
Moxley noted that since the store is small, unlike Walmart or Target, the owners can only allow 10 people in the store at a time. Aside from the fact that such situations can be difficult to manage, they may also result in negative experiences for customers who have to wait outside.
“And so, ultimately, we just decided, the safest thing to do to still be able to service our customers that want to shop with us, and still be able to get those last minute gifts for yourself, or for someone else, was to convert everything over to online,” he said.
Moxley said he and the other owners see this as a temporary closure, and while they’ve not determined a date to reopen, they’re going to wait out the holidays to see how things go.
There are still several ways to support this locally owned business during COVID-19:
- The store is starting a curbside pickup option at its shop at 1616 Camden Road. You’ll be emailed when your order is ready and pickup times are from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday.
- The store will continue to offer free shipping with code: SHIP IT. Just keep potential mail delays in mind if you choose this option for a holiday gift. A Christmas morning without an official 704 Shop beanie, hat or tie dye tee under the tree would be a sad Christmas morning, so plan accordingly.
Checking in: Charlotte’s local businesses
As COVID-19 continues to place pressures on small businesses, CharlotteFive reached out to other area shops to find out plans for the holiday season amid a pandemic.
At this time, Paper Skyscraper will remain open, as it has extended health and safety measures in place.
“We’re going to remain open, but we’re limiting the amount of people in the store to what we feel comfortable with, which is less than our legal capacity. We’ve installed this REME HALO filtration system that sanitizes the store 24 hours a day, and can kill any germs in the air. We feel comfortable staying open and so that’s our plan,” said Bill Godwin, owner of Paper Skyscraper.
“We’re had the plan in place for months at this point and continue to adjust it, and we’re watching the cases and listening to what the governor has to say. We’ve gone steps further than any other business we’re aware of to install this filtration system, so we feel like we’re one of the safest places in Charlotte to shop.”
“Our biggest challenge will be limiting the amount of people in the store to keep everybody comfortable,” Godwin said. “We’re not going to be able to keep everybody happy, but we’re going to try to keep everybody safe and happy.”
Paper Skyscraper has expanded its in-store shopping hours from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. Godwin said customers can message the store to come and shop at an earlier time in the morning when there’s nobody inside.
OMJ Clothing, a custom clothing store in South End that debuted in May, will remain open as well.
‘Consumer buying habits have changed’
“We are still open but recommending private appointments for those that would like to come in. That way, we can control the number of people in our store. All custom suiting appointments are done like this anyways. We’re also offering curbside pickup for online orders,” said Bradley Rhyne, co-founder of OMJ Clothing.
“704 Shop has a lot of foot traffic and an awesome online presence, and I admire then for being able to close,” Rhyne said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of retail shops that are not so lucky. They may not even have an online business to fall back on.”
Rhyne mentioned that while an overabundance of unsafe foot traffic is usually a non-issue for retailers, foot traffic has been down considerably for most retail.
“There are a few exceptions, but the majority are down and really struggling. Consumer buying habits have changed, and many are conditioned to no longer be out and about as much as they used to,” Rhyne said. “The ‘browser’ buyer is gone these days and left if mainly those buying for a purpose. I want to be careful we don’t bring ‘cancel culture’ to this issue and create pressure for businesses to voluntarily close their stores. This happened in March, and while I certainly understand the idea behind it, I don’t think it’s a one-size-fits-all.
“There are so many local businesses where this is their only way to survive, and closing will be the end,” Rhyne said. “Closing has way less of an effect on savvy successful businesses with multiple channels for selling their products, but what about the small businesses that are less fortunate and with less means? What are they supposed to do in this situation? I, for one, would not be upset with them staying open and safely continuing their operations.”
Jewels Royal Boutique in Ayrsley Town Center said on its company website the store is has closed for in-person shopping but open for online purchases. It stated it will reopen when it’s safe to do so. Store officials did not immediately respond for comment Monday.
704 Shop
1616 Camden Road
(704) 496-9063
atherine Muccigrosso contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 8:48 AM.
