'It's Going To Feel So Good': Hudson Small Business Owners Elated To Reopen
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Many Wisconsin stores can re-open their doors for customers.
Gov. Tony Evers signed an emergency order Monday which will allow stand-along or strip-mall based stores to offer shopping for up to five customers at a time. The order went into effect immediately.
Second Street is usually the heartbeat of Hudson, but people have gotten used to seeing "Closed" signs on storefronts. News that those signs will now be flipping the other way is the talk of the town.
Store owners know it's going to take time to get back to where they were before the pandemic, but they say the announcement is a definite step in the right direction.
Val Aune owns two stores on Second Street: A women's clothing store and The Bees Knees.
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"What's really amazing is my co-worker and I were in here busy working and had no idea it had actually been announced," Aune said.
Her employees will also wear masks.
"It is going to feel so good. What's so strange is we already had a few people through the door and my initial thing was to go and hug, and now I, you know, it's like we can't do the hugging yet," Aune said.
Social distancing will be emphasized on the other side of the street as well, where Kendra Wiesemeyer runs a boutique called The 715. Business has been down 80%, but she has hope that will soon change.
"We've missed everybody. We've missed conversations, so we can't wait to get back to that," Wiesemeyer said.
One of the reasons Wisconsin decided to allow more businesses to reopen is its percentage of positive COVID-19 cases. Over the past two weeks, the overall percentage of people testing positive in Wisconsin is beginning to decline steadily.
Minnesota isn't seeing the same thing quite yet.
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