As of Monday, businesses around Mississippi were able to take the first step back to normalcy amidst the COVID-19 crisis, with Gov. Tate Reeves's "safer at home" order allowing non-essential retailers to open their doors, albeit with half the regular capacity and adherence to social distancing guidelines.
But retailers in Hattiesburg are, with mixed results, dealing with a slightly more stringent version of that order, as Mayor Toby Barker is still limiting non-essential retail businesses to no more than 10 customers at any given time, or drive-through, pickup, curbside or appointment services only.
"We want to be able to serve more than just the allocated maximum 10 customers," said Brandon Thaxton, who along with his wife, Abby, co-owns The Lucky Rabbit on Mobile Street. "We're fine with doing it by appointment; honestly, we've been doing that, and we did it before the shelter in place and we did it this past weekend just because we needed to get some income rolling in here before the end of the month.
"What we're not fine with is the maximum of 10 people in the building. I can see how that would work in a smaller space, but we're 15,000 square feet, and when we've had 10 people in there - including employees - you don't even know anybody is even in the building."
To that end, the Thaxton's would like to see some better guidelines regarding how many customers a store can hold based on its square footage, similar to the protocol at larger chains such as Home Depot, Walmart and Lowe's.
"Yes, they have restrictions, but they base them on the square footage, and they're able to have hundreds of people in their building - not just a maximum of 10, regardless of size," Brandon said. "I think that's what's really hurting the small businesses right now.
"We'd probably be okay if we could have more than 10 people in our building - it's just absurd. There's plenty of safe distance where people could shop, and even wear a mask - we're fine with making that a requirement as well. We don't have any problem with that; it's just that with our customer count, this needs to be reconsidered."
Brandon also mentioned that possible competitors in nearby locations are not under as stringent restrictions as those in Hattiesburg, which could be detrimental to his business as well.
"They're open at half capacity like the governor suggested," he said. "And if our customers can't come and shop with us, they're going to take their business elsewhere outside of the city. That's revenue that we'll miss out on, and tax revenue that the city will miss out on.
"So it affects the community, that we're having these restrictions put on us, and others aren't. I think some of the bigger local businesses that have the room for people to shop - not like a convenience store - they need to be looked at on a business-by-business basis, and not just a blanket policy for everybody."
Barker issued the edict Saturday afternoon to take effect at 8 a.m. Monday.
"Governor Reeves has to take steps and set policies that are applicable to the entire state as a baseline," Barker said. "But his order also continues to give municipalities the ability to make more stringent decisions that work for the best interest of each community.
"The data for our area simply doesn't show we're at a place where we're comfortable with retailers allowing for half capacity. For now, we're deferring to Executive Order 2020-3 (issued March 17), which still allows for our non-essential retail businesses to creatively operate while we take the time needed to listen to our medical community, look at our own local data and hear from stakeholders so that we can chart the best path forward for our community."
McKenzie’s On Main in downtown Hattiesburg – which specializes in a variety of antiques, holiday decorations, home décor, jewelry and Mardi Gras gifts – was allowed to re-open after being closed since March 19.
“I understand why Mayor Barker did it, because I saw on the Facebook feed where he showed the different numbers and how there’d been a small spike, and that’s how they decided not to (reopen all the way),” owner Ellen McKenzie said. “I’m okay with (the 10 customer rule). The kind of shop I have, it’s rare – except on holidays – that I would have many more than 10 people in there at one time anyway. So I don’t think it would affect me a great deal.”
Angie Nance, owner of Simply Chic by Fetiche Boutique, said she is understanding of Barker's order, and of the fact that the ever-changing nature of the situation necessitates varying measures.
"We've been doing (online and curbside), so nothing's really changed," she said. "Now we can have people actually come in if they want to do appointment only, but we've been doing curbside and a little bit of delivery ever since we've been closed, plus our website."
At T-Bones Records & Cafe, owner Harry Crumpler finds himself in a unique situation, as the store offers both a restaurant and a retail section. Because of that, Crumpler and his staff would probably have stuck to the previous policy of curbside or pickup anyway.
"We're doing curbside record sales, and we're also doing shipping," Crumpler said. "And we're doing some delivery, so if you're within five or 10 miles of the store, we'll bring it to you.
"But since we're retail and restaurant, I kind of have to let the restaurant rules dictate the scenario for me more than the retail rules, so Mayor Barker's decision doesn't really change anything for us. That's what we would have remained doing anyway."
In addition to the city's local medical experts and the 40-member community working group announced last week, Barker's administrative team also is looking at the regional criteria from the White House's Coronavirus Task Force. That criteria looks at symptoms, cases and hospital capacity, and only allows for entry into Phase I of reopening with a consistent downward trajectory over a 14-day period.
"At this time, our data doesn't prove we're where we need to be," Barker said. "While our data did show a downward trend for several days, we also experienced an upward turn this week. We will continue to use data specifically for the Hattiesburg metro area and make decisions with the best interest of our city in mind."
