State News

Open for Memorial Day Weekend, Traverse City is a nervous city, too

May 24, 2020, 8:54 AM

Staff members pose at Apache Trout Grill, which reopened Friday on West Bay in Traverse City. (Photo: Facebook)

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted restrictions on travel to northern Michigan, many visitors no doubt set their GPS for Traverse City, whose big-city amenities and small-town charm make it the area's most popular destination.


A web welcome from Horizon Books.

Consequently, T.C. business owners find themselves in a strange position, caught between welcoming the throngs that keep them afloat but still nervous about how to accommodate them, safely. 

Chad Livengood visited the cautiously reopened city for a report for Crain's Detroit Business. At Horizon Books, one of downtown's most popular establishments, customers are in for a very different experience:

The threat of coronavirus has forced the bookstore to change the way customers tend to wander bookstores.

Every aisle has signs directing book-browsers on which way to walk. Some aisles are dead ends, blocked by bookcases. Only one customer is permitted at the checkout counter at a time.

(Owner Amy) Reynolds also removed all of the seating within the bookstore, which has a cafe, effectively ending the practice of patrons getting a cup of coffee and sitting down to read a book they may or may not buy.

Other businesses, particularly restaurants, slashed the maximum number of customers allowed inside. At an outdoor outfitter, masked sales clerks stood behind a table at the entrance and became, essentially, personal shoppers; customers would say what they were looking for, and clerks would fetch it from the inventory and carry it back to display to the potential buyer. 

The good news is, everyone seemed to be OK with the very different way of doing business -- "super respectful," said one. 

Still, the marquee at the State Theater seemed to say it all: COMING TOO SOON: THE TOURIST.


Read more:  Crain's Detroit Business


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