‘It’s nice to see people’s faces again’: What SLO County looks like as California reopens
In a celebration of sorts after more than a year of COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions, downtown San Luis Obispo was a bustling scene of activity Tuesday on the first day of California’s full reopening, with many people strolling and shopping without masks.
Across the county, the day marked a joy-filled end to the state’s public health mandates and the color-coded tiers and guidelines that touched nearly every aspect of daily life.
It meant people can now enter stores, restaurants and entertainment venues without masks and move about more freely, comfortably and socially for the first time in months.
“It’s nice to see people’s faces again,” said Terrence Walker, a barber at SLO’s The Gallant. “Downtown is starting to come back again.”
To wear or not to wear masks
While the restrictions have been lifted, it’s clear not everyone is yet fully comfortable returning to normal, pre-pandemic life.
Many people visited local stores and gathered in public without masks, but plenty of others chose to keep the face coverings on, including many store owners and workers.
“We’re going to require masks for the time being (for customers and patrons), because it doesn’t feel quite right yet to take them off,” said Mike White, owner of Boo Boo Records. “I’d like to see that vaccination rate get up to 70% before we can say, OK, we’re good now and everyone who wants to have been vaccinated has had the chance.”
At HumanKind Fair Trade on Monterey Street, which sells accessories and home goods, manager LynAnne Wiest said that the nonprofit store’s three employees and 15 volunteers all have been vaccinated, but they’ll still wear masks while on duty.
“We’ll wear masks so that people feel comfortable, but it’s up to the customer if they want to wear one or not,” Wiest said. “Customers can decide what’s best for them.”
At Old Cambria Marketplace, the Shell station in Cambria, manager Eric Johnson estimated that the ratio of masked to unmasked patrons is about “70-30,” down just a bit from what it had been (usually as high as 90 percent masked, he said). Staff there is still masked up, Johnson said. Most walkers on Main Street were still wearing masks.
The gradual easing of restrictions and decline in coronavirus cases has brought more tourists and locals out and the local economy is picking up, said SLO Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center Manager Dusty Colyer-Worth.
“It’s been awesome to see the spirit of our locals, as well as the levels of tourism that I keep on seeing grow again and again,” said Colyer-Worth, adding many travelers have visited by car, but more are coming in by plane. “It’s great to see the excitement of people getting out and about and back to some of their favorite things, discovering new things and putting their dollars toward the success of their community.”
Colyer-Worth said that the Chamber had fielded dozens of pledges (estimating about 100 as of mid-day Tuesday) as part of the city’s newest version of its Buy Local Bonus program, encouraging residents to support local businesses with $20 gift cards if they commit to shopping locally.
Seeing people’s faces again
Walker, the SLO barber, said that he feels the energy coming back to the city that was missing for so long.
He and the other barbers at The Gallant weren’t wearing masks on Tuesday.
“For some customers, this is the first time I’ve even seen their face after cutting their hair three or four times,” Walker said. “If anyone feels uncomfortable, we’ll put masks on, though.”
Walker said the reopening is a pointed change of the past 15 months, when he and others in his industry were forced to rely on unemployment and savings.
“I’ve seen more people doing fun things like putting color in their hair,” Walker said. “Hey, I have purple in mine. There’s just more of the normal buzz around the city.”
Wiest said the pandemic shutdown period last spring allowed HumanKind to add a revamped online store, which will have long-term benefits.
“It’s something we’d planned on doing before but never had the time,” Wiest said. “Now, you can see just about every product we have on our website. It can be hard to run both e-commerce and an in-person store at the same time, but it’s a good thing.”
Colyer-Worth said that parklets in SLO, which the city is considering keeping permanently (a survey is underway now asking residents their thoughts), and art installations (this month celebrates Pride in Mission Plaza’s exhibit) that became more a part of the downtown are both welcome takeaways from the pandemic.
SLO chain stores drop mask requirement
The grand reopening of California’s economy didn’t seem to much impact many big-box stores in San Luis Obispo County. The majority of customers could be seen still wearing masks, and employees all had face coverings, per the state’s current worker guidelines, which are set to change Thursday.
On Tuesday, the majority of stores in the Madonna Plaza shopping center still had signs up saying masks were required for entry, despite some of those stores’ corporate offices saying they are loosening mask-wearing guidelines.
Ralph’s grocery store displayed a “masks required” sign in front of its store Tuesday despite an announcement by its parent company, Kroger Corp., in May that the store would no longer require fully vaccinated individuals to wear masks.
Ross Dress For Less also still displayed a mask sign, though customers without masks could be seen entering and leaving the store early Tuesday.
In the Madonna Plaza, only Michael’s had removed its mask signage.
Larger stores like Target and Costco both had new signage up on Tuesday asking unvaccinated customers to continue wearing masks.
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“In accordance with CDC guidelines and state and local regulations, members and guests who are fully vaccinated may enter Costco without a face mask or face shield,” read the large mask policy sign posted at Costco’s entrance.
Proof of vaccination status was not being asked for at any of these stores as of Tuesday morning.
Trader Joe’s grocery store on Higuera Street had removed its signs requiring masks and added a new sign stating reusable bags are once again allowed in the store (they were banned throughout the majority of the pandemic to reduce spread of the virus).
The store also continued to display a sign asking people with symptoms of coronavirus to avoid shopping there and stay home.
The line of customers that since last spring has sometimes wrapped around the front of the business because of limits on indoor capacity was also missing Tuesday, though the pieces of tape marking social distanced spaces still remained as one last testament to the now-defunct restrictions.
Tribune staff writer Kathe Tanner contributed to this story.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
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