Another Covid Update

Multonomah County officially entered Phase 1 of reopening, one of the last, if not the last county to reopen in Oregon. While I am partly excited to reopen the doors of the shop, I am also pretty scared at seeing the rising new cases of Covid in the city. Many of the new cases in Oregon are centered around the larger cities (makes sense, there are more people) so I'm worried we might be asked to scale back again.

As of right now, my plans are just to be open on weekends. We will reopen cautiously and slowly and take it week by week. A soft reopening will be July 4th and 5th 11 AM to 5 PM though I will add, if at anytime I feel it is not safe to continue retail operations due to rising new cases and hospitalizations, I will close up the shop again until it feels safe. (The cafe is separate from the shop so hours and plans of operations may differ)

The retail shop won't look quite as it did before, it will be "intentionally minimal" you could say, though we will be able to assist you if you would like to try anything on that is on the website and not on the floor. Apothecary/beauty product testers will not be available. I've slowly phased it out for now and hope to reintroduce it again at some point.

A couple new rules...

Multonomah County is requiring that everyone wears a mask while out in public, so originally we were going to make masks optional for shoppers, but now it's a requirement. Due to limited space in the shop, food and beverage from the cafe cannot be consumed on the premises until Phase 2, but you will be able to come inside and order! 

I can't help but feel very frustrated by all of this and honestly I'm just so tired of it all. My biggest fear is investing time, money, and energy into reopening only to be forced to be shut down again. Some states are considering scaling back reopening due to new cases and I just have a gut feeling the same will happen to Portland. 

I'm feeling a mix of emotions from frustration, hope, fear, excitement, exhaustion... I thought by now, since it's near my birthday that my plan to reopen around this time thinking surely we would be well into Phase 2 would be in full swing. Instead I am met with more uncertainty. It is difficult to plan for the portion of my small business being so limited due to it being a brick and mortar! So in truth I am not very motivated or inspired about the retail shop right now. Le sigh.