Retailers relieved by increased capacity, fewer restrictions

Minnesota retailers, both large and small, have reason to feel a little more merry this holiday season. Capacity restrictions on non-essential retail stores have been lifted, meaning they can have 100% capacity as long as they follow all other COVID safety guidelines.

"Initially, there was a fear we would have to cut back but, honestly, I thought that retail has been doing so well with the COVID cases and everything like that, I thought we would be OK," said Brittany Slusar, of Amore & Fede, a women’s clothing store in downtown Excelsior.

The lifting of the capacity limits won’t have a big impact on small stores, other than to be able to add a few more custormers. The bigger impact will be shoppers getting the message that retail operations aren’t considered a major source of COVID transmission.

Slusar said they’re also grateful restaurants don’t have more restrictions until late at night because shopping and dining often go hand-in-hand.

"Groups of women … they make a day of it," she said. "You know, it’s like, let’s make a day of it, get together, we’ll go to lunch, shop, do happy hour and then they’ll continue from there, they might even go to dinner at another restaurant in town as well."

The lifting of capacity restrictions will also impact stores inside big shopping malls, like Mall of America.

"It will allow them to operate with a little more customer capacity," the president of the Minnesota Retailers Association, Bruce Nustad, said. "Again, it has to be done within kind of the rest of the safety measures in your COVID preparedness plan, social distancing, all that other stuff remains the same."

Non-essential retailers had been restricted to 50% capacity when they were allowed to reopen. Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz’s administration clarified that all retailers can now go back to 100% capacity with COVID safety plans in place.

It’s welcome news during the key holiday shopping season.

"We need this big push through the end of the year to really survive until spring," Slusar said.