should our shop stay open during this virus?

[mtvic]

First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

[rawr1922]

All the local shops around me still open.

[Seventyfrigginseven]

I saw a few skate shops on IG that are doing pickup only. I believe it's call ahead for what you need and just come get it, and only pay by card. Probably not a great time right now for skaters to just linger around the shop and shoot the shit.

[h00man]

should do online, phone and pickup orders. Make sure your shop is clean and staff are aware of how serious the issue is.

[mtvic]

Yes!  Thanks guys!  This is the type of stuff I was hoping to hear.

[Sativa Lung]

First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

Do you have a website? If not start a bigcartel or shopify, it's pretty simple to set up. Switch to online sales as your primary income as fast as possible.

If your area doesn't have mandatory non-essential business closings yet then do one person in the shop at a time and make them wash their hands before they touch anything, grab a box or two of gloves if you wanna really play it safe, and then just like... don't make out with them.

You're going to lose money over this, but any sane community will freeze rent and have some form of forgiveness for that. You're definitely not alone in your situation and there will almost certainly be some form of relief when shit starts to chill out.

[mtvic]

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First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

[close]

Do you have a website? If not start a bigcartel or shopify, it's pretty simple to set up. Switch to online sales as your primary income as fast as possible.

If your area doesn't have mandatory non-essential business closings yet then do one person in the shop at a time and make them wash their hands before they touch anything, grab a box or two of gloves if you wanna really play it safe, and then just like... don't make out with them.

You're going to lose money over this, but any sane community will freeze rent and have some form of forgiveness for that. You're definitely not alone in your situation and there will almost certainly be some form of relief when shit starts to chill out.

I dont have a website but we will set one up right away, thats a great recommendation.  We only have one person working at a time, there literally is no anti bacterial soap or toilet paper in town but we have a little of both for now.

[ArtVandelay]

I saw some shops are letting 2 customers in at a time max, and are encouraging people to call ahead and do pickup. Strange times. Hope you make through okay.

[moonordie]

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First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

[close]

Do you have a website? If not start a bigcartel or shopify, it's pretty simple to set up. Switch to online sales as your primary income as fast as possible.

If your area doesn't have mandatory non-essential business closings yet then do one person in the shop at a time and make them wash their hands before they touch anything, grab a box or two of gloves if you wanna really play it safe, and then just like... don't make out with them.

You're going to lose money over this, but any sane community will freeze rent and have some form of forgiveness for that. You're definitely not alone in your situation and there will almost certainly be some form of relief when shit starts to chill out.

[close]

I dont have a website but we will set one up right away, thats a great recommendation.  We only have one person working at a time, there literally is no anti bacterial soap or toilet paper in town but we have a little of both for now.

You can make your own:

[Fongstarr.]

510 in Berkeley is doing DM requests. I think if you really needed it, they can accommodate in getting you some stuff.

[Cash bandicoot]

NJ closed up and is just pushing online orders with free shipping. That seems like the best way to go about this .

[chipped tail]

are you on quarantine? mandatory nonessential business shutdown? if its for the love then closing shouldnt be an option until you're broke or dead. if you can take customers use scaled back hours and one employee. take some DMs and sell what you can. hopefully this only lasts one month of rent/bills.

[nopes]

All cowtown locations in Phoenix just closed down

[BacksideWallride]

Don't be a poosey stay open

[Squidbeeksmuth]

We're gonna need some serious government assistance soon with money. Work has slowed down so much my next step is to bail and move back in with the rents.

[chipped tail]

All cowtown locations in Phoenix just closed down

theyre a big online retailer. makes sense for them. A store with no online shop needs to stay open or make local deliveries

[mtvic]

Don't be a poosey stay open

For sure were open for now.  Until the state or feds tell us otherwise I am pretty sure well stay open due to the nice weather and because skating has to be helping with some peoples sanity.  Doing the best we can to limit interaction at the moment though

[secondhandstoke]

close.  dont be a mormon and put your employees, customers and community at risk.

[WideFeet]

I own a small shop. We’re staying open as long as possible. We have small close to us, and they closed. Hoping to capitalize on them being closed and tab business from Zumiez and Vans. Haha.

[Sativa Lung]

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First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

[close]

Do you have a website? If not start a bigcartel or shopify, it's pretty simple to set up. Switch to online sales as your primary income as fast as possible.

If your area doesn't have mandatory non-essential business closings yet then do one person in the shop at a time and make them wash their hands before they touch anything, grab a box or two of gloves if you wanna really play it safe, and then just like... don't make out with them.

You're going to lose money over this, but any sane community will freeze rent and have some form of forgiveness for that. You're definitely not alone in your situation and there will almost certainly be some form of relief when shit starts to chill out.

[close]

I dont have a website but we will set one up right away, thats a great recommendation.  We only have one person working at a time, there literally is no anti bacterial soap or toilet paper in town but we have a little of both for now.

Do you have rubbing alcohol and dish soap? Same thing. I work in an ICU doing infection prevention stuff, the actual effective chemicals we use are bleach for the difficult stuff like cdiff, peroxides for typical bio waste and blood, and finally alcohol for the minor shit and entry/exit hand cleaning via sanitizer. All that stuff is is rubbing alcohol and detergents, and some moisturizers and scents. There's a reason we have to remove them from the room when the really crazy alcoholics get transferred over from the psych building.

Alcohol wipes from the needle exchange will probably clean your hands better than the little bottles people are hoarding right now. As far as microbes go, SARS-cov2 isn't actually that hard to kill. I think even copper will do the trick over the course of a few hours.

[DirtyBurger]

This sounds bad when I say it, and I fully respect you have a local, but being as you have 1 employee on at a time I can't imagine that business is booming, especially now when most people are hiding indoors. At the same time I know skaters aren't the most cleanly people, or people that aren't high fiving and hugging a lot for that matter. Personally I say stay open as long as you can, but as a responsible business owner it makes way more sense to close for public health.

As everyone else said I'm sure you have a Facebook page or Instagram account, worst case scenario try to communicate through them to set up purchases and go that route.

Also yea, there are other options out there as far as cleaning goes. I've been a diabetic for years and kind of hoarded alcohol swabs just by being lazy. A guy I work with keeps a bottle of Lysol on the truck to mist himself with if we're working someplace dirty.

[pdknox]

offer delivery services and maybe youre employees will collect tip money

[chipped tail]

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First, we are a small shop.  We barely make rent every month and really are only open because of the love for skating.  At that, I have wanted to shut down over the past few days but the crew wants to stay working as we all know the shop has no money to pay anyone if we are shut down.  Money aside, people are still skating.  Im interested in hearing any suggestions and hope this can stay as positive as Slap gets.  Should we stay open?  Switch to some form of pick up only? close altogether until?

[close]

Do you have a website? If not start a bigcartel or shopify, it's pretty simple to set up. Switch to online sales as your primary income as fast as possible.

If your area doesn't have mandatory non-essential business closings yet then do one person in the shop at a time and make them wash their hands before they touch anything, grab a box or two of gloves if you wanna really play it safe, and then just like... don't make out with them.

You're going to lose money over this, but any sane community will freeze rent and have some form of forgiveness for that. You're definitely not alone in your situation and there will almost certainly be some form of relief when shit starts to chill out.

[close]

I dont have a website but we will set one up right away, thats a great recommendation.  We only have one person working at a time, there literally is no anti bacterial soap or toilet paper in town but we have a little of both for now.

[close]

Do you have rubbing alcohol and dish soap? Same thing. I work in an ICU doing infection prevention stuff, the actual effective chemicals we use are bleach for the difficult stuff like cdiff, peroxides for typical bio waste and blood, and finally alcohol for the minor shit and entry/exit hand cleaning via sanitizer. All that stuff is is rubbing alcohol and detergents, and some moisturizers and scents. There's a reason we have to remove them from the room when the really crazy alcoholics get transferred over from the psych building.

Alcohol wipes from the needle exchange will probably clean your hands better than the little bottles people are hoarding right now. As far as microbes go, SARS-cov2 isn't actually that hard to kill. I think even copper will do the trick over the course of a few hours.

shelves were empty of alcohol too

[Banned from the room]

If work for my shop if they needed it.

I'm not afraid. I need money wicked bad but I love my shop. I do it for free

[Frank]

well i guess it's time you close up and do a big online sale. because you want to liquidize as much inventory as possible without actually people showing up to your shop.

the most important thing rn should be the safety of the shop's customers and staff.

if you insist on leaving the shop open i'd cut opening hours down to a minimum and ask any of my workers if they are even down to work the shop during a pandemic situation.

also be prepared that the government might leave you no choice but to close if shit hits the fan. so basically i'd ramp up my online presence and drop prices on any inventory more than two months old. 

also maybe talk to your landlord about the situation. it makes no sense to tell them last minute that you can't pay the rent. better bring it up now and considering the special circumstances of a pandemic maybe there is a way to pay late or pay half for the time of the pandemic, like the next three months. your leverage is that the landlord might have trouble finding a business to move in during a pandemic. it makes more sense to let you pay half the rent now and pay that other half back later(still sucks for you, but better than getting kicked out)instead of kicking you out and then get nothing for months, because no one is starting any (retail) business during a pandemic.

EDIT: double dipped on a lot of stuff you mentioned in the initial post but it's late here and my reading comprehension sucks and i'm typing maniacally

[VHS ERA]

My local shops all shut down except one. Ordering a new deck from them online.

[Lord Viper Scorpion]

close.  dont be a mormon and put your employees, customers and community at risk.

lol

[Lord Viper Scorpion]

We're gonna need some serious government assistance soon with money. Work has slowed down so much my next step is to bail and move back in with the rents.

lol

[Lord Viper Scorpion]

great depression 2.0 comin up motherfuckers, this time it's for realz

[dooley]

Pickup only with a complimentary wet wipe, and no touching shit unless they're determined to buy it.