Featured
austonia newsletter
Most viewed
'It has to get better:' local retailers reopen for to-go service after weeks of shutdown
Robby Pettinato, principal toy curator at Toy Joy stores, reaches for a sound mixer on the shelf at Toy Joy on Friday. The mixer is also sold at Wild About Music, the store's downtown location, but crossover inventory was sent to the toy store after the music shop was deemed nonessential. Toy Joy was allowed to remain open because it sells educational toys. (Karen Brooks Harper)
Shelley Meyer, owner of the iconic Wild About Music shop in downtown Austin, was finally able to sell band T-shirts, music posters, and other music-themed gifts today for the first time in nearly a month.
Along with other shops defined as nonessential, Wild About Music has been effectively closed since a March executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott, but as of a new executive order issued last Friday, can now conduct business on a to-go basis.
"It has to get better," said Meyer, who also owns Toy Joy, Yummy Joy and Austin Rocks. "The more public it becomes that we're open, it won't just be us trying to tell the world. It'll be more of an expectation."
High fashion, novelty gifts, art, furniture—for weeks, merchants like these have been relegated to selling on national online marketplaces or simply waiting it out with no income.
Abbott's order impacted more than 90% of small businesses across the nation, said Dixie Patrick, president of the Austin Independent Business Association. The group represents about 1,000 independent businesses, about half of which are retail, she said.
Even businesses that the order defined as essential felt the burn. Business is down 70% at Precision Camera, which supplies audio/video equipment to news media and churches, said General Manager Gregg Burger. Customers who weren't regulars assumed that they were closed.
"Everyone will know to call us now," Burger said.
One challenge is to make sure businesses have access to the required hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies, Patrick said.
Another is that some smaller retailers have never been online before, she said, and now that customers can't browse indoors, it's much more important to the store's success.
"There is a subset of people who are really starting from scratch," she said.
At Wild About Music, Meyer and her crew have been moving a couple of guitars a week through reverb.com, a national online music store, but they are still at their highest annual inventory levels every February, when they stock for SXSW, which was canceled.
Their experiments with online sales were a bust in the past because there was too much competition with national online retailers, said Meyers.
Now they've revived their web store and consolidated all their shops' curbside and phone business at their Toy Joy/Yummy Joy location on Airport Boulevard to cut costs.
They also let customers browse their music store through Zoom or FaceTime by appointment—the closest they can get to in-person sales.
Hopefully, she said, it'll be enough for now. While she may be one of the city's larger local retailers, she also has a lot on the line.
"We've got a barrel of stuff and are in a barrel of hurt over this," Meyer said.
- How coronavirus helped to make Austin's former Carfax for horses ... ›
- A dentist closing clinics waits for money from the feds as private ... ›
- Austin restaurants are waiting for federal relief. Will it come in time ... ›
- Business isn't bad at restaurants reopened at low capacity, but 'You can't really make a living like that' - austonia ›
- Up next: gyms, yoga studios weigh cost of reopening - austonia ›
- Construction, retail workers most at risk for COVID-19 as clusters spring up - austonia ›
- Meet the optimists: Austin business owners greet pandemic with investment, expansion - austonia ›
- Meet the optimists: Austin business owners greet pandemic with investment, expansion - austonia ›
- Donors rally behind Austin dive bar Donn's Depot amid COVID - austonia ›
Popular
Lotto fever is reaching a peak here in Texas and it's no surprise why—this drawing's players stand to win $550 million in Powerball and a stupefying $750 million in Mega Millions. Needless to say, many Austinites are trying their luck this time around.
After supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a deadly riot last week, the FBI circulated an internal bulletin warning of armed protests being held at all 50 state capitols at least until Inauguration Day.
Here in Austin, local and state law enforcement officials have ramped up security around the Texas Capitol, the Texas Legislature has adjourned until Jan. 26 and downtown businesses have boarded up their storefronts—again.
- Texas Capitol amps up security after pro-Trump protest - austonia ›
- Gov. Abbott dispatches National Guard to Austin amid election ... ›
- Austin police prepare for election-week protests - austonia ›
- Downtown Austin boards up in anticipation of protests, again ... ›
- Black Pumas bring Austin music to the VP inaugural fundraising ... ›