Retailer happy with relaxed rules, keeps adjusting to change

Edgar coffee roaster and retail merchant Francesco Guerrero on Monday said he’s pleased Gov. Evers “turned the dial” on Safer at Home orders to allow a partial reopening of retail stores in Wisconsin, but added that the COVID-19 pandemic will permanently change his small business.

“This is a good step forward,” he said, “but, looking ahead, it’s all about adjusting to change.”

The governor announced that both stand alone shops and shops located in strip malls will be able to open immediately, although not allowing no more than five customers in their place of business at once. Social distancing must be practiced.

Guerrero roasts and bags gourmet coffee in a room at Stark’s Floral, Edgar. The flower shop has been closed since Safer at Home rules were announced March 25, but the coffee roasting business, as a wholesale operation, has been able to continue.

While the doors of Stark’s Floral have been closed, Guerrero has sold coffee over the interest and with curbside pickup.

Coffee sales, he said, have not been half bad. While in store sales have suffered due to a lack of customer interaction, he said his coffee business, Redwood Roasters, has picked up sales with Starbucks closing in Wausau.

Guerrero said there is no going back to the old normal. There is only a new normal that is being figured out now.

“Every business that comes out of this will have to adjust their business plan,” he said. “We all have to be creative.”

Guerrero said he has tried to boost sales by offering monthly specials on coffee. One week he offered free shipping. Another week he cut prices by 20 percent.

“This has helped our online sales,” he said.

Guerrero said that he and his wife, Krystle Guererro-Schmitt, have used the business down time to remodel the Edgar store for better days in the future.

“We are improving what we have,” he said.

Guerrero said one positive out of the pandemic is that people are less interested to go to the Wausau area to shop and would just as well keep their sales dollars in Edgar.

“People don’t want to be exposed to a lot of people,” he said. “We are seeing people buy more local.”

Guerrero said customers need to recognize, too, that things will be different going forward and that they are part of that change.

“People need to understand that things will be a little bit different,” he said. “It will take everybody’s energy to make things work. Not for the benefit of one person. It is for the benefit of everybody.”

Karen Schmitt, owner of Stark’s Floral, said sales have fallen significantly during the pandemic, but not entirely. Curbside sales have been better than expected, she said.

“People have been good,” she said.

Schmitt, who opened her store’s greenhouse on Monday, said people are still spooked by the coronavirus.

“I’d say 85 percent of customers wear a mask,” she said. “It’s still scary.”

Schmitt said she requires all customers to use hand sanitizer before they touch store merchandise.

Further, she said, she offers free paper face masks to customers at the store’s front counter.

“I don’t want people to feel uncomfortable,” she said.