RICHMOND, Virginia – On a sunny Memorial Day, summer 2019 crowds met in Carytown, three full days after Virginia lifted most of the COVID-19 corporate social distancing and capacity limits.
Small businesses across the region are confident that the moment marks the beginning of a major rebound for retail and hospitality, after more than a year of downturn and uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Tracey Adler, who owns a health care company in Richmond, brought her daughter and boyfriend, who are visiting from abroad, to Carytown.
“It’s the place you come when people come to visit,” said Adler.
The past year of keeping her own business afloat and paying the staff has been tough enough, so Adler knows the challenges facing stores and restaurants have been immense. She was sad to see that some places were closed on a busy holiday.
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“It’s really sad to see that some of the places I see have closed their stores, be it due to COVID, which may be the case. But yeah, Carytown is a great place, there are so many great places in Richmond. “
Virginia lifted all capacity and social distancing guidelines on Friday and had previously ended masking requirements for vaccinated Virginians. Unvaccinated Virginians are asked to wear face covering, but companies have no way of knowing who actually received the vaccination.
A Carytown official told CBS 6 that adapting to the policy change and customer responses to it has been difficult.
Some stores are choosing to keep their COVID-19 policies for the time being.
“Even some of those stores we went to said you don’t have to wear a mask. I still wear a mask because I’m vaccinated, but I don’t know everyone else,” Adler said.
Edgar Jerone Melton is a partner of Bands and Batteries INTL. The store had been in Chesterfield city center for 25 years, but Melton said he moved to Carytown a few weeks ago.
The timing for the restrictions to be lifted couldn’t have been better for their move, he said.
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“I just wanted to be part of Carytown and see how it went and add some new color,” he said. “Since they were lifted, we’ve seen a lot more people out and socialize.”
Less than half of the companies surveyed by the NFIB group of companies in May expected economic conditions to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, and only 15% said business conditions have returned to normal.
Small businesses like Jerone Melton’s hoping backlog will support the economic recovery, even if the schedule isn’t tight.
“They’ve been staying in the house for so long just to see someone greet them and say hello. I don’t know what it does for you, but I know what it does for me, it makes my day better! ”Said Jerone Melton.