The reopening, phase one: retail stores, restaurants start slowly where they can

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Oregon consumers took cautious steps Friday on the first day restrictions meant to slow the spread of coronavirus were loosened.

A barbershop in McMinnville welcomed its first customers in weeks. Some access points to the beach along the Oregon Coast were reopened, but few visitors were on the sand. Goodwill customers reveled in their return to bargain hunting.

In Marion and Polk counties, even many businesses that could have reopened did not.

Marion and Polk counties were the only two counties whose initial reopening plans were rejected by the governor, who cited an increase in hospitalizations in both counties as the reason. Three counties in the Portland metro area -- Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington -- have not yet submitted reopening plans.

Retail stores throughout Oregon, whether they were in counties approved to reopen or not, were allowed to reopen Friday.

Few locally did. 

The largest malls in Salem, Willamette Town Center on Lancaster Avenue and Salem Center in downtown, remained closed Friday and only businesses that were operating previously like JoAnn Fabrics and Best Buy were operating Friday morning, though with significant restrictions. 

At Keizer Station, curious customers slowed as they drove by or walked up to the door of retail stores like Marshalls, Ultra Beauty and Loft, but none of the stores were open. 

The only places at Keizer Station with significant activity were stores that remained open, such as Lowe's and Target. The drive-through line at In-N-Out snaked into Volcanoes Stadium's parking lot.

Retailers are required to limit the number of customers to allow them to remain 6 feet apart, post signs, frequently clean work areas and high-traffic areas and provide and require all employees to wear face coverings.

In counties allowed to reopen, businesses like restaurants, bars, child care facilities, personal services such as salons, churches, health clubs and bowling alleys are allowed to reopen at 50% capacity and must follow physical distancing and sanitation protocols.

Along Oregon's coast, 17 parks and beach access sites have reopened in Lincoln County. In addition, 20 day-use sites on Oregon's South Coast reopened Friday. 

The sites do not include major state parks and campgrounds, nor all day-use sites, but do include smaller destinations, such as Devil’s Punchbowl, D-River and Yaquina Bay state recreation sites.

Coastal access:Oregon Coast beach access sites reopen in Lincoln City, Newport and South Coast

West Salem's Goodwill

Before the West Salem Goodwill opened at 10 a.m., there was a line forming at the entrance. "It's the happiest part of my day, being here," said West Salem resident Bonnie O'Brien. In her cart, she had a clock, a swimsuit, an iron statue and more. 

"It was clean and wonderful," she said. "They have the ground marked so everybody stays far apart from each other, and people tried. Everybody has masks on."

Carla Gehrke, of Rainier, Ore., drove over an hour to browse the aisles of clothes and home goods. "We heard that it opened and we couldn't wait to get out of the house and go do something," she said. 

The aisles she spent more than an hour cruising down have been re-configured to ensure customers can follow social distancing guidelines. Racks of clothing have been removed, and 20 re-hired employees are cleaning high-touch areas hourly.

The Goodwill parking lot was bustling. Every few minutes another car drove through the donation drop-off area. A new policy in response to COVID-19 asks customers to unload and sort the belongings they're donating. 

"If it took a couple people to load your car, bring the same people to unload it," advised Dale Emanuel, Goodwill Willamette's Public Relations Manager. 

Goodwill is quarantining donated items for 72 hours, then sterilizing. Goodwill's nonprofit job services are funded through donations. "This is the only way we know right now to receive the donations that are so crucial to the mission," Emanuel said.

McMinnville: Barber opens, restaurants worry

In McMinnville, off Highway 99, gyms and a Goodwill store remained dark, but a line spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of Don's Barber Shop. 

Owner Don Mack, wearing a cloth mask, gave one visitor a haircut, while three more customers waited in chairs spaced several feet apart and a fourth waited out front. 

Will today be the busiest in the shop’s history? “I don’t know about that,” Mack said, “but it’ll be close.” 

Next door, New to You, a consignment shop, wasn’t yet open to the public. Rather than open on day one, said floor manager Kimberly Pitzer, they opened exclusively to accept consignment items from established consignors including Nadine Sampson. 

Sampson consigns donated clothing as a fundraiser for the Dayton Food Bank. With so many people stuck at home, cleaning out closets, she said, “I have been stockpiling.” She estimates she has 12 containers of clothing and shoes to bring in. 

Manager Dallas Olejniczak said staff had spent the past two months deep cleaning the store and reorganizing racks of clothing to allow more distance between shoppers. 

“We have a lot of space here, but it’s always tempting to fill it.”

Parking lots at big retailers were busy, but Third Street, McMinnville’s main drag of independent restaurants and boutiques, remained quiet. 

Community Plate, Flag & Wire Coffee, and several other area restaurants made statements via social media that they would continue limiting service to take-out only, taking a wait-and-see approach and allowing more time to meet the physical and operational changes required by state recommendations. 

Diana Riggs, owner of Mac Market, McMinnville’s independent market and event space, is holding off opening, despite the fact that the 10,000 square foot space offers plenty of room for physical distancing. In the meantime she plans to continue offering Local Goodness To Go, a virtual farmers market, waiting until June to open. But she said “things could change dramatically before June 2 if there is a surge of cases, so as with any plans during this time, we take them day by day.” 

Ricardo Antunez, owner of McMinnville’s Pura Vida Cocina and Salem’s Xicha Brewing said, “We’re not going to open (Pura Vida) right now. We just don't feel we’re adequately ready to protect our customers and our employees from the onslaught that could happen of people coming to McMinnville.”

Crossing county lines

Antunez’s concern is that people visiting from counties not approved to reopen could represent a vulnerability for Yamhill County businesses and their employees. 

Indeed, not far from Pura Vida’s storefront, David and Laurie Verigan, a couple from Hillsboro, strolled up Third Street on Friday morning. They came to McMinnville for the day to see what businesses had opened, a chance to get away from home. 

Whereas the state guidelines for businesses to reopen are specific and thorough, the question of people traveling outside of their own county of residence remains ambiguous.

Jeff Glodt, owner of Grain Station Brew Works in Monmouth and McMinnville, said by noon the restaurant had already served a group visiting from Oregon City. 

“I fielded five calls from folks in Salem asking when we open,” he said. Counties not yet approved to reopen, “those people can’t get out fast enough.” 

“I’m not going to start taking IDs,” he said, but “that’s what we’re gonna end up with.” 

In the sunshine on the Grain Station patio, Wendy Henderlong and Kelly Smith sipped midday palomas, cloth masks set aside for the moment. A stylist at a local salon, Henderlong is happy for the chance to return to work, even if on a limited basis, and glad that small businesses can now open.