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Quiet Response To Reopening Of Small Businesses In Downtown Fort Worth

May 4,2020

See full CBSDFW.com story by Jason Allen here. 

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – After flipping the open signs around on the door for the first time in weeks, many businesses in Fort Worth were still waiting Monday to see familiar customer numbers return.

Traffic was limited, with what seemed like more dog walkers and runners than cars.

Some stores downtown were counting visits in the single digits.

There were some small signs though of a tentative return.

At City Center Fort Worth, two of the largest office high-rises in the city, management estimated about 25% of tenants were in the building Monday.

President Johnny Campbell told CBS11 that was the first time the estimate, based largely off of parking garage capacity, had edged above 15% since stay home orders went into effect in March.

A Sundance Square representative said restaurants downtown were still doing robust curbside business over the weekend, but expected to need a few more days to judge how much customer traffic was returning.

At Flowers To Go, Tarah Hoover was opening the doors again, and brought an employee back to work for the first time since March.

She thought there might be a small opportunity for some Mother’s Day business.

With offices still empty though, restaurants limited and graduations cancelled, she was still missing out on normal May business.

“People coming back to work in the office versus working from home,” she said is what it would take to be normal again. “The hotels allowing visitors, and another one is conventions, letting the conventions come back.”

At The General Store in the Fort Worth Stockyards, Marilyn Swisher estimated about 90% of the 145 customers that came in the door Saturday, were local.

“They said they came in because they knew stores in our area needed people coming through,” she said.

That was encouraging for a store with little online sales presence, outside of social media channels.