FAIRLAWN, Ohio — Shulan's Jewelers has been in business for 99 years selling diamonds, emeralds, pearls, watches, fine china, crystal and more, but making it to year 100 has been difficult.
Owner John Shulan said the store, which relocated to a small Fairlalwn shopping strip on West Market Street last year, has seen a drop in business of 99% since Gov. Mike DeWine shut down most of Ohio retail due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"It's been devastating," Shulan said. "Our business evaporated. Right now, this is supposedly one of our busiest times of the year."
For the past week, Shulan has been seeing customers by appointment only.
On May 12, he'll be able to reopen his doors with several safety measures in place. His employees will wear masks. There will be a limit of no more than three customers in the store at a time and Shulan said there will be "constant cleaning."
"If people want to pull up to the front door and just have the package handed to them, we'll do that we've been very careful sanitizing everything. All the doors--every time a customer leaves--we wipe down the doors with sanitizer. We have hand sanitizer for everybody to use," he said.
Dr. Amanda Weinstein, an assistant economics professor at the University of Akron, said as retailers get back to business, workers will need to focus on "service innovation." By that, she means focusing not only the goods, but also on different ways to reach customers and provide them with something new.
"If that's delivery, if that's suggestions of what to buy," Weinstein said. "We really need our retailers in Ohio to really innovate a way of how can I reach customers in brand new way."
Weinstein said the economic impact on retail, especially to small businesses, has been huge. She said many stores will be hurting for a while even as Ohio reopens.
"It's going to be until we have a vaccine. Once we have a vaccine and people feel comfortable going into stores and interacting with people, it's not going to get back to normal," she said.
Shulan recieved a payroll protection grant and a $5,000 Summit County grant designed to help small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
"Those grants are critical for us to survive," he said.
Shulan understands it may take a while for jewelry sales to get back to normal and for some customers to feel safe in stores, but he's excited to get back to business, while also keeping safety in mind.
"Anything to get some activity going in a safe way. It's important to be safe. We have to be smart about it," he said. "Hopefully, May 12 we'll have people walking in again."
