Minnesota retailers excited to welcome back customers Monday

Monday marks the end of a long and painful wait for small retailers as the Governor’s new order allows some of them to open at 50 percent capacity.

Many of them are taking special precautions to make sure shoppers feel safe when they arrive.

“We’re excited and hopefully it creates even more excitement and traffic,” said Erick Deleon, of Martin Patrick 3 in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood.

The store opened a week early because, in addition to clothing, the store sells furniture, making it essential.

“We had a lot of people walk in yesterday, seeing that our door was open and they were just excited to go look at product,” said Deleon. “You know, I think that itch is there to get out.”

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According to the Governor’s order, retailers have to limit the number of customers and allow for six feet of social distancing once inside. Extra cleaning measures are also expected.

“We have completely overhauled what we’re doing for janitorial, housekeeping, maintenance,” said Sarah Fossen, of Rosedale Mall.

The Roseville mall will reduce hours to allow for more cleaning and only open one entrance so they can monitor the number of people coming and going.

“We’ve been working really hard day and night ever since the closure to make sure that we were ready to open in the safest way possible,” Fossen said.

While it might look different, for some, it will be a welcome return to some kind of normalcy.

Malls re-opening Monday include the Galleria in Edina, Rosedale in Roseville and Ridgedale in Minnetonka. The Mall of America does not plan to reopen until June 1.