STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island shoppers rejoice!

With New York City officially set to enter Phase 2 of its reopening on Monday, Jun. 22, hundreds of local retailers are planning to open their doors to shoppers for the first time since mid-March.

Phase 2 brings with it the return of in-store retail, albeit with strict guidelines that businesses must adhere to in order to ensure the health and safety of their employees and customers.

Stores can only operate at 50% capacity. Employees must wear masks whenever theyre interacting with customers. Customers must also wear masks, if medically able. Stores must control foot traffic with designated signage and/or floor markings. Self-serve stations must remain closed. Store owners may refuse service to any customer not wearing a mask. And malls remain closed with the exception of stores with external entrances.

Despite the bevy of restrictions, Staten Island stores are raring to reopen and recoup some of revenue lost as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

EMPIRE OUTLETS

Empire Outlets will reopen all of its stores and public spaces on Monday, Jun. 22, with reduced hours and new social distancing and health safety protocols in place. All stores at the Empire Outlets are permitted to open because they all feature external entrances.

We are looking forward to welcoming back our community, staff and shoppers to Empire Outlets, said Joseph Ferrara, Principal of BFC Partners and Developer of Empire Outlets. While our waterfront esplanade, Walgreens and takeout at Shake Shack continued to be open for our local Staten Island community since mid-March, we are thrilled to fully and safely reopen our open-air property including all of our retail spaces and public areas for visitors who can take the free Staten Island Ferry, which is located steps from Empire Outlets.

The outlets will be open on Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

In regards to the new safety protocols, all employees will be required to wear masks and will be subject to temperature checks. Employees will also be trained with COVID safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Enhanced cleaning procedures have been put in place to ensure that the outlets remain safe and sanitary, with increase implementation of contactless transaction technology to limit the amount of physical interaction between customers and employees.

Social distance markings, hand sanitizer stations and advisory signage will also be installed throughout the outlets.

Signage to promote social distancing will be placed throughout each store at the Staten Island Mall, encouraging shoppers to stay at least six feet apart. Hand sanitizer will be available to customers and employees at various locations. Plexiglass barriers will be installed at all checkout locations, with cashiers required to disinfect keypads after each transaction. (Alexandra Salmieri/Staten Island Advance)

STATEN ISLAND MALL

The vast majority of stores at the Staten Island Mall will not be permitted to reopen on Monday during the start of Phase 2 due to the lack of external entrance.

However, some stores, such as Macys, does feature an external entrance and is expected to reopen its doors to customers on Monday, according the Staten Island Mall.

In early May, Macys began laying out plans to reopen all stores within a two-month span as some states began reopening amid the pandemic.

Assuming that COVID-19 continues to trend as were seeing today, we anticipate that the majority of our stores will reopen in the next six to eight weeks. Having studied the recovery rates and consumer behavior of Asian and European countries that are ahead of the U.S. in the cycle, we do anticipate a gradual sales recovery in our brick-and-mortar stores, Macys CEO Jeff Gennette said at the time, noting that stores will likely only do about 15% to 20% of their normal sales upon initial reopening.

While Macys will reopen, the store will look a bit different -- as new health standards have been put in place with an emphasis on customer, colleague and store environment safety.

Signage to promote social distancing will be placed throughout each store, encouraging shoppers to stay at least six feet apart. Hand sanitizer will be available to customers and employees at various locations. Plexiglass barriers will be installed at all checkout locations, with cashiers required to disinfect keypads after each transaction. All store employees will be provided with cloth face coverings, and those interacting with customers will also receive gloves.

Cleaning protocols have been enhanced to provide for more frequent sanitization.

Many services will also be modified or temporarily unavailable during the initial phases of reopening.

Macys Beauty will offer no-touch consultations, with all customer application and spa-like services suspended until further notice. Alterations and ear-piercings have been suspended at all locations that offer such services. Dress shirts are currently unavailable to try on, and bra-fitting services have been put on hold. Any customers looking to try on watches or jewelry will be required to use hand sanitizer first.

We want the customers to feel like theyre entering a safe environment. We want our colleagues to feel that way and communicate that to our customers, Gennette said.

Its currently unclear whether other Staten Island Mall retail establishments with external entrances, such as Barnes and Noble, JCPenney and Ulta Beauty, will reopen on Monday.

LOCAL BUSINESSES

Small, local businesses, many of which have been completely shuttered for more than three months, are beyond eager to reopen on Monday.

Anthony Rapacciuolo, executive director of the South Shore Business Improvement District (BID), said that about 20-25 local businesses in his district -- including retail shops, salons and barbershops -- are expected to reopen on Monday.

Its very exciting. The retailers are anxious to open. They need to open because they need to make money because many of these businesses havent made any revenue so theyre struggling severely, Rapacciuolo said. All these business owners are willing to do whatever it is they need to do. They just need to open up.

Rapacciuolo said that business organizations, such as the South Shore BID, have been working alongside the local retailers to ensure that theyre compliant with all city and state regulations, though he still hopes that agencies will be lenient in their enforcement as businesses continue to adjust to the new normal.

Im hoping that the citys not going to come out next week and start issuing fines as soon as everything opens. I would hope they could issue guidance because guidance is more important and all these businesses are struggling. All these businesses will do anything they can to open up. You tell them jump this high and theyll do it just so they can serve their customers, he said.

Local businesses hope that the reopening of in-store retail, outdoor dining and grooming services will help bring back some of the business theyve lost to neighboring states as Staten Islanders have been taking day trips to New Jersey and Connecticut to partake in what were once deemed everyday activities such as shopping, dining and getting a haircut.

I hope that the start of Phase 2 on Monday will curtail that effect because now people have the option to dine and shop on Staten Island, which should help stop the money from going over the bridge and keep it on Staten Island, Rapacciuolo said.

Linda Baran, president of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, said that the restoration of in-store retail is crucial to many of the small businesses who were without the resources to open for delivery or curbside pick-up.

For the business owners, its really hard for a small retail establishment to bring on staff and try to do pick-up and delivery when people cant see the products, Baran said.

Baran said that most of the local businesses that will be reopening are primarily concerned with their customers feeling safe within the store.

Some of the concerns Ive been hearing are about how comfortable the customers will be coming into the store. From what Ive heard from most smaller shops, theyre just taking the necessary precautions to make sure that the customers feel safe and they want to come in, she said.

Nancy Nix, co-owner of Wicked Stitches, said her and her business partner, Carolyn Buckheit, have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for the return of in-store customers in Phase 2.

Were thinking we can probably have two people working and two customers in the store at a time, given the square footage, Nix said. So were just figuring out how to post that information outside for the customers and what would be the best and safest way to go about things, but were all in on Phase 2.

The West Brighton-based custom gift shop has been handling online orders throughout the pandemic, but sales have dropped significantly with customers unable to come in a peruse the stores selection.

For us its been especially difficult because were a custom gift shop so while we have our stock custom gifts, we also do unique things that arent on our website. Weve tried to use social media for that, but its honestly just not the same, said Nix.

On top of that, the pandemic has encompassed three significant holidays and celebrations that typically drive business at the shop.

We went through Mothers Day and now Fathers Day is coming up and then weve got all the graduations, Nix said. Those are three things we usually do a lot of business for.

The store is expected to officially reopen for in-store shopping next week, from Tuesday through Friday, under limited hours, with hopes of restoring their standard 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours in the near future.

I would love to see people in here shopping just like the good old days of four months ago, Nix said.

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