Rochester experts offer tips for local businesses beginning to reopen
Monday was the day many retail businesses in Minnesota had been waiting for, as the governor’s stay-at-home order was allowed to expire. Some restrictions are still in place regarding safety plans and customer capacity, but doors are swinging open across the state.
With more and more brick-and-mortar businesses beginning to reopen, the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce recently held a virtual conference detailing some guidelines, pointers and general advice to take into account as customers begin making their way back into stores. The Chamber’s webinar featured comments from Olmsted County Public Health Director Graham Briggs and a presentation from Dan Mesenburg, regional training manager at ServiceMaster of Rochester.
Below are five takeaways for businesses looking to reopen the right way.
To keep Covid-19 contained, everyone in the community must be on board. “We can’t just do this by ourselves [at Public Health],” said Briggs. “Between the government agencies, the business community, our medical providers, and ultimately our residents, we all need to work together to lessen risk.”
Briggs gave seven initial recommendations to lessen the risk for local businesses wishing to reopen. Here are six of them:
Have employees continue to work from home whenever feasible.
If workers have to physically be on the job, check for symptoms when they come to work.
Create a workplace environment allowing for six feet of physical distancing.
Use disinfectants ‘rigorously and routinely.’
Look into physical barriers like plexiglass and have workers wear masks, if physical distancing can’t be achieved.
Wash. Your. Hands. Often.
“We really need to have a partnership, now more than ever,” said Briggs.
Briggs’ seventh recommendation: Restaurants should look outside. Outdoor seating, according to Briggs, would help restaurants abide by physical distancing guidelines. The idea is slowly taking hold in some cities starting to reopen, and some have even taken it to the next level by allowing bars and restaurants to operate in outdoor public spaces. While Rochester and Olmsted County boast no such plans yet, Briggs noted al fresco dining should be seriously considered by any restaurant with the ability to do so.
“Think about it this summer, as a focus for your business practice,” he said.
Don’t expect to see anyone outside local dinner spots for the next couple of weeks, though. Restaurants and bars are classified as ‘close contact’ establishments and can’t legally offer dine-in service until at least June 1.
There will be ongoing supply-chain issues, for PPE and just about everything else. Businesses that have stayed open through the pandemic have dealt with a host of supply problems, from grocery items like meat and milk to the mass rush on toilet paper. Face masks, N95 or otherwise, are in remarkably short supply as well. Health care workers cite having to broker black-market deals to get masks, which means retail-facing businesses may face an impossible task.
If your normal supplier doesn’t have what you need, Mesenburg says to search until you find someone that does.
“Be prepared to change suppliers, because up to this point, we’ve had to use about a dozen suppliers just to keep our franchise operating,” urged Mesenburg. “Even our mothership (corporate) has had trouble keeping stuff in stock. Until our supply chains get full again, expect there to be delays or you may need to make some changes in getting products.”
Keep a level head with customers — but keep your priorities straight. It’s already taken hold in convenience stores and grocery aisles nationwide: angry and confused customers, searching for out-of-stock products or incensed over social distancing, berating workers and managers. Mesenburg said people are bound to break the rules and get angry, so don’t feed into it — but also, it may be time to walk back the old adage of ‘the customer is always right.’
“We’re going to have to train our customers how to act in our business,” said Mesenburg. “This is going to be a new challenge for us, and you know what, there’s going to be people who will get mad at us, stomp out of your business, and probably blow up on Facebook about how bad you were, kicking them out of your building. But you have to make a decision: is it worth one person coming into your building, infecting someone, and having your business shut down for an extended period of time?”
There are lots of resources available. Mesenburg noted that businesses should put up signs to keep customers aware of what’s expected of them while shopping, avoiding mass confusion whenever possible. The Minnesota Department of Health has several downloadable printouts available on their website for any business that wants to use them — free of charge. There are also resources and guidelines for reopening available on the National Restaurant Association’s website.
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
Cover photo licensed via Canva
