For today’s Q&A with a local business owner, we talk to Heather Satin of Wave. After several weeks of closure, the Elm Street jewelry, home decor, accessories and gift shop reopened Wednesday—with masks required inside and hand sanitizer offered at the door—along with a handful of other retailers downtown. Wave’s hours are going back to what they were prior to the first set of restrictions that came with the COVID-19 public health emergency: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Here’s our interview.
New Canaanite: How are you feeling now that your doors have reopened?
Heather Satin: We are so happy to be here and be together with everyone we work with and seeing our customers and seeing the streets with people again. And it’s so beautiful outside, so it’s the perfect time to reopen.
And what has the community response been like through the restrictions?
We have definitely made do. We had to think outside the box. We did FaceTime sales, we sent pictures to customers, we used our website, we had phone orders. The town and surrounding towns have just been incredible.
What have customers been wanting the most, out of what you sell?
They really want everything, and depending on whether they are treating themselves for gifts or buying for others, they want jewelry, clothing. It’s really been a mixture throughout.
What is your operation like now? You have a sign which says to wear a mask, which is a requirement.
We have hand sanitizer at the door. There are no dressing rooms allowed. If someone takes home clothes and brings them back, we have to let them sit for 72 hours. We are waiting for shields to come in between the registers and customer. And I put toothpicks next to the credit card machine, so if you don’t want to touch the buttons on the credit card machine, you can use a toothpick.
What is your message to customers?
Welcome back, we are here to help and show you all the most amazing things we have in and anything you need.