California Allows Record Stores to Reopen — With Conditions, Of Course

• Save

• Save

(photo: Clay Banks)

As part of its plan to gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, California is allowing record stores to reopen. However, government officials have laid out bolstered sanitization protocols and health-oriented guidelines for business owners, their employees, and customers.

Business owners are directed to these measures through California’s “Resilience Roadmap” webpage.

Per the entry, the state has entered Stage 2 of the roadmap, which calls for the measured reopening of “retail, manufacturing, and logistics” businesses, before schools, offices, and child-care facilities take steps to resume normal operations. (Significantly, Stage 3 of the roadmap centers on the reopening of “higher-risk workplaces,” while Stage 4, labeled “End of Stay at Home Order,” revolves around reopening “areas of highest risk: e.g. Concerts, conventions, sports arenas.”)

The State of California has broken down its Stage 2 reopening and operational recommendations by professional sphere, and record store owners’ responsibilities are highlighted within the retail-sector section. The state’s “Industry Guidance” document requests that businesses craft a “written, worksite-specific COVID-19 prevention plan,” besides educating employees on the plan’s contents and the nature of COVID-19.

After emphasizing the importance of already-established guidelines (frequent handwashing, distancing, facial covers, etc.), the text relays the specific steps that retail-business owners (and record stores’ professionals) will need to take in terms of protecting employees.

Workers must be tested via a “temperature and/or symptom screening” at the start of every shift, and “employers should provide and ensure workers use all required protective equipment.”

Finally, the “Industry Guidance” resource for retail encourages business owners to stock their stores with hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipe stations, regularly disinfect commonly touched/shared surfaces, and even stagger employee breaks to minimize contact.

Despite the far-reaching nature of the preventative guidelines, it goes without saying that many record store owners are eager to reopen their doors, just as many customers are eager to patronize their favorite businesses once again.

Late last month, Digital Music News was first to report that Seattle’s famed Bop Street Records had been forced to permanently close. Meanwhile, California favorite Amoeba Music is on the brink, and currently raising money on GoFundMe to survive. Additionally, Record Store Day UK organizers have pushed their much-anticipated celebration back to fall and split it into three functions, each separated by one month.