'Hopefully we can get back to living:' Retail reopenings in Orange County bring people out

Manager Carmalit Green looks out the door of Troy Lee Designs and Race Shop store in downtown Laguna Beach, as California entered Stage 2 of reopening Friday with the permission of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

By Hillary Davis

, Lilly Nguyen, Sara Cardine and Andrew Turner

May 8, 2020 6:15 PM PT

Beach House Laguna Beach doesn’t have an online store. Friday was its first day back in business.

Although it was limited to curbside and pick-up service, owner Melanie Harrison said “we figured, today’s the first day we could open ... so, get the doors open. People start noticing.”

She said she was in favor of a slow reopening and wasn’t expecting big numbers Friday.

“As a store owner, you feel helpless. So, when there’s this little window, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve got to give it a try,’” Harrison said. “And [soft reopening] is something, but I’m not expecting huge numbers. I’m being honest. It’s just been really tough for all of us small businesses. So, we’re trying to capitalize on Mother’s Day. The first sale I had was for Mother’s Day. She bought a platter.”

That platter was part of a return for retail and a nudge toward normalcy, as California entered Stage 2 of reopening Friday with the permission of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Florists, bookstores, music stores, toy stores, clothing shops and sporting goods stores, among other lower-risk businesses, can reopen for curbside pickup. Manufacturers and suppliers that provide goods for those businesses also will be allowed to resume operating.

Across Orange County, consumers came out for more than the bare essentials.

In Newport Beach, Erin Kelly was happily selling Legos to children at the Wee Loft, the toy store she’s run in Corona del Mar for eight years.

“It’s like the cloud has lifted — [or] it’s about to lift,” she said.

Costa Mesa

Shopping centers in Costa Mesa sprang to relative life Friday as locals took advantage of deals and offers presented by area businesses.

Duke Edukas, who owns and operates Surfside Sports at 233 E. 17th St., said he and his family were ecstatic to be allowed to get back to business after a harrowing hiatus.

“Financially, it’s been disastrous,” he said. “In the days leading up to us closing, I don’t want to say I was in denial, but I wasn’t sure it was a big deal. Now I believe it.”

Edukas was uncertain what the rules were for businesses but saw competing shops in nearby cities reopening, so he decided to call a skeleton crew into work and put extra safety protocols in place.

Customers were required to wear facial coverings, and complimentary hand sanitizer and disposable surgical masks were at the ready. Items touched but not purchased were taken to be disinfected, cleaned and held in a 24-hour quarantine.

Irvine resident Lisa Van Slyke, who owns commercial properties in Costa Mesa, came by Surfside to pick up a pair of flip-flops. She said the business closures have been hard on her tenants.

“We’re trying to work with all of them to see if they can stay,” she said. “If we’re all safe and can be smart, hopefully we can get back to living.”

An employee of Macy's South Coast Plaza delivers a package to Wesley Bird at the curb in Costa Mesa on Friday.

Department stores at Costa Mesa’s still-shuttered South Coast Plaza offered curbside pickup for online orders. Costa Mesa resident Wesley Bird, 30, pulled her Mazda SUV up to the curb at Macy’s and popped open her trunk as an employee came out of the store with her new hair dryer.

“I just delivered a baby a few days ago and have been quarantining for a couple of months to stay healthy,” Bird said. “This is a great option to pick something up without heading into the store.”

Owner Marcy Horgan, second to left, takes a call as Brittany Cain, far left, Cece Vo, second from right, and Kelly Pham, work to fill orders at Magnolia Florist in Fountain Valley on Friday.

Fountain Valley

Business for Magnolia Florist has been booming to the point that owner Marcy Horgan had to turn off ordering on her website, magnoliafloristca.com, to ensure that her Fountain Valley store would be able to fulfill the Mother’s Day orders that had already come in.

The shop, at 17032 Magnolia St., had over 100 deliveries set for Saturday.

“We’re going to just do the orders, make sure we fulfill people’s orders, and then tomorrow, we’ll open back up for the last-minute people because I don’t know what is available,” Horgan said. “I don’t want to oversell.”

The store also began offering curbside pickup.

Ballard & Ballard Jewelers, 18400 Brookhurst St., also opened for curbside pickup. Guy Ballard, who owns and operates the store with his brother, Glenn, said he had a delivery for a birthday, an anniversary and for Mother’s Day as Friday moved into the afternoon.

“We’re a fourth-generation jeweler, so we’ve been in business over 100 years,” Guy Ballard said of the business, which opened in 1917. “We have a very loyal, reliable repeat business as well, which is nice.”

Upon reopening on Friday, Tennis Spectrum, 16519 Brookhurst St., saw loyalty from its customers, too. John Ngo, who was working in the shop, said that several familiar faces had dropped by for restringing of their rackets.

With his parents, Gary and Patti McElmurry, in front of him, Wyatt McElmurry exits the Hurley store on Main Street with a T-shirt, socks and swimming trunks on Friday, the first day the store reopened for business in more than four weeks.

Huntington Beach

Ruben Zavala emerged from the Hurley store on Main Street in Huntington Beach after looking at what was inside. Although he did not buy anything, he said it felt better to have more businesses open on Main Street, where he works as a cook at 2nd Floor restaurant, which is open for takeout.

Bianca Avalos, a Huntington Beach resident, said that she came to Main Street with family to get some fresh air and go for a bike ride, a rare treat for her since the shutdown.

She said she felt the latest step to reopen some more businesses was a good thing. She drew a comparison to consumer behavior at the grocery store, where she said items are often looked at, touched and then put back on the shelves. She wondered why other businesses, which might face similar social-distancing challenges, had to be closed.

“I feel like it’s the same thing,” Avalos said.

A customer orders at Starbucks on Friday, the first day the Huntington Beach store opened for business in more than four weeks.

Two people from Avalos’ group headed into Beach Island, a beach-themed souvenir shop at 127 Main St. that had also opened its doors again on Friday.

There was a desire to see Main Street return to its normal, vibrant atmosphere among those walking the street.

A Starbucks patron who wished to go unnamed said that Main Street was “not even close” to being its normal self despite having reopened businesses. That customers were greeted with instructions to order in the Starbucks app and wait in a line outside the store at Main and Olive was indicative of the times.

“If it’s decent weather, there’s people in all the businesses,” the customer said. “There’s people on the sidewalk … people eating and drinking in bars. There’s always people hanging out here [at] Starbucks.”

Laguna Beach

It was quiet in downtown Laguna Beach.

As restrictions on some retailers begin to ease, others remained shut, locked and with signs taped or hung from doors that still read “closed.” Cars rumbled down Forest Avenue and people ambled along on the sidewalks. Some wore masks, others didn’t — but the absence of consumers remained obvious to the storefronts that opened Friday.

At Sunny Days, 269 Forest Ave., owner Deanna Frieze said that she and her staff were cleaning the store and preparing merchandise in anticipation for when retailers would be able to return to regular practices.

All five of her clothing and accessories stores across Orange County were staffed Friday, but she saw little foot traffic and did not expect Friday to be a big sales day.

“In a retail environment, it’s extremely tough to have a drive-up, pick-up. Our customers want to try things on ... they still want to touch and feel the product,” Frieze said.

Frieze said she has faced economic difficulties over the years, but with no warning, the pandemic has been the toughest challenge.

“I said, ‘We’ll just play it by ear today and see what the temperature is.’ But, I can already tell,” she said. “I can see and look around that it’s not going to be a big shopping day.”

Alec Williams, who manages North Menswear at 380 Glenneyre St., said he didn’t know if consumers would “flood out” on Friday, but Williams said he felt that people might be feeling restless.

Two signs remind customers about the social distancing rules at Violet Boutique in Laguna Beach on Friday.

Williams said he came into the store during the closures to fulfill online orders, adding that more people have been going outside in the last week or two, but that initial foot traffic had been slow. He said he felt the “tone [of downtown Laguna Beach] has shifted, but I don’t know if a switch is flipped. I think the tone’s shifting and people are getting restless, ready to get back to the normal.”

North Menswear owner Martin Majano said he was excited his store was able to reopen, adding that he didn’t feel it was fair for retailers such as Amazon or Walmart to be able to stay open while small businesses couldn’t.

“Call that me being rebellious, but we have families to feed and we have responsibilities ourselves,” he said. “But, [we’re] excited overall that we get to actually have the soft open.”

Owner Erin Kelly, left, talks with longtime customer Eva Stellar, center, with her son Jake, 4, as they search for games and toys at the Wee Loft, an independent toy store in Corona del Mar on Friday.

Newport Beach

Joe Carter was doing a steady business at the Pedego Electric Bikes shop he co-owns at 2515 E. Coast Hwy. in Corona del Mar.

Because bicycles are considered “essential,” as a part of the transportation sector, he’d been able to keep his store open. Although he couldn’t offer his usual rentals, he continued to make sales and repairs.

Customers are allowed in two at a time. Repair appointments are spaced out and the workshop is blocked off as repair customers are rerouted to avoid walking through the store. Workers wear gloves and masks, and they sanitize their surroundings.

Carter said he wonders if business will taper off as relaxing restrictions give people more things to do outside the house.

But business wasn’t just good but rewarding, “because it’s a way for people to get out and do something and relieve the stress.”

At the Wee Loft, 3331 E. Coast Hwy., Erin Kelly had managed to stay afloat during the last two months of lockdown with online sales and curbside pickup. Friday gave her a bump, and she allowed shoppers in one party at a time, with masks. Kids wore masks, too.

As one person shopped and two others waited their turn outside, she said she expected even more traffic over the weekend.

“We’re happy to see our families coming back in.”