A longstanding retailer in Windsor is excited to open its doors to the public.
Tepperman's is ready to welcome back customers under the Red Control Level of the Reopening Ontario Act. Tuesday.
Even at 50 per cent capacity, President Andrew Tepperman says being in store is important when it comes to buying furniture and appliances.
"I don't know about you but I'm going to want to go sit in that dining room chair, I'm going to want to test out my mattress," he says. "Even a fridge, there's different nuisances between a fridge like the type of shelves, the lighting; it's really hard to ever feel that online."
The company learned a lot during the first shut down, so Tepperman says layoffs were kept to a minimum this time around.
He's happy to say all his staff are ready to go to work
"We were prepared and we knew what we could do and capitalize on business while we were shut down, but now we've brought everybody back ... and we have all hands on deck," he added.
Tepperman says staff have already been hard at work preparing to reopen.
"When people are off for eight weeks, you can't just bring them back into a work environment and expect everything to be normal," says Tepperman. "We spent an extra couple days investing in retraining people back into the systems."
Gyms, salons and restaurants are also permitted to open their doors Tuesday with capacity limits and COVID-19 prevention measures in place.
Essex County entered the Red Control Level of the Reopening Ontario Act. Tuesday at 12:01 a.m.
— with files from AM800's Rob Hindi.