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A few Durango merchants took their first tentative steps toward reopening Monday – offering curbside sales and deliveries – but business appeared to resemble bears coming out of hibernation more than the feeding frenzy ursines enter before their winter slumbers.

Slow sales didn’t surprise Brian Josefsberg, manager at Brown’s Sport Shoe on Monday.

“We made a few sales curbside, and we made some sales through phone calls. We’ll do everything we can for a customer. Some have wanted to pay by phone, and that’s fine. It works for everybody.”

Josefsberg said the store plans to abide by all guidelines set by San Juan Basin Public Health for allowing customers into stores Friday. Requirements will include maintaining 6-foot social distancing, limiting the number of people in the store, wearing of masks and gloves, frequent hand washings and taking employees’ temperatures.

La Plata County was among the majority of the state’s 64 counties that allowed retail shops to begin offering curbside sales and deliveries under Gov. Jared Polis’ safer-at-home order.

The safer-at-home order allows retail shops, which were closed under the monthlong stay-at-home order, to also begin allowing customers in their stores Friday.

The order also allows personal service businesses like salons, barber shops, personal trainers and dog groomers to reopen Friday with the requirement they follow health guidelines to limit the spread of COVID-19.

The safer-at-home policies also allowed elective medical procedures and real estate showings to resume Monday.

Five Front Range counties – Denver, Boulder, Arapahoe, Adams and Jefferson – kept in place the stricter stay-at-home order. And one county, Eagle County received Polis’ approval to relax even further because it has had a low-contagion plan approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Patrick Jones, a broker associate with Coldwell Banker Heritage House Realtors showed a business property in Bodo Industrial Park on Monday to a plumbing firm based in Farmington looking to expand into Durango.

Pent-up demand for showings, which had been banned under the stay-at-home order, will keep agents busy for a while, he said.

Fairly robust first-quarter real estate sales, Jones said, had him optimistic COVID-19 might have a limited impact on La Plata County sales of homes and commercial businesses.

“I think you might see some folks moving to Durango from bigger cities who weren’t planning to because smaller cities were hit less than bigger cities,” he said.

On the retail side, Josefsberg anticipates Brown’s Sport Shoe sales will slowly expand.

“As the weather warms up, I think it will pick up, and I think actually being open Friday will help with people able to come into the store,” he said. “I’m not going to say we’ll be 100% by any means, but I think things will pick up. People do need to get outside and hike and run. It’s good for your health, and it’s our main customer.”

Cathy Wakeman, owner of Animas Trading Co., didn’t make any sales Monday, although she fielded a phone call for someone who was going to pickup clothing Tuesday.

“It’s what I expected,” she said. “A lot of our stuff, you have to see it and try it on.”

While Friday seems a little early to open the shop to customers, Wakeman plans on giving it a try and judging sales strength before making further staffing decisions about summer.

“I think summer will pick up gradually, but it will be slow. I don’t anticipate a normal Durango tourism season,” she said.

Wakeman had just been informed by TBK that she had been approved for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, which she said will help with payroll and rent for two months.

“It will help us get started, for summer,” she said.

Wakeman kept her full-time manager on the payroll when she was closed during the monthlong stay-at-home order. She said her one part-time employee, a college student, left to go home, and she will gauge how busy summer is before rehiring that position.

The majority of retail stores remained closed Monday on a two-block stretch of Main Avenue rather than offering curbside sales and deliveries. Closed retail shops in the two blocks included Kids Rock, Colorado True, Out of the Blue, Magpies Newsstand, Half Price Ts, Azul Gallery and Durango Antique Market.

Josefsberg said he operated “as if we were closed for 30 days” although some ordering was going on and a few phone sales and packages were mailed to regular customers.

Luckily, Brown’s Sport Shoe was lightly staffed. No part-time employees had been hired to help with the busy tourist season, and Josefsberg will hold back on making those hires until he gets a better gauge of tourism season.

Cole Glenn, manager of The San Juan Angler said the out-of-state owners of the shop own a small hotel and two other fly shops and were able to get a Paycheck Protection Program loan to keep the shop’s two full-time and one part-time employee on payroll during the monthlong shutdown.

Like other retail businesses, Monday sales were light, but Glenn also thought sales would pick up when customers could get into the store.

“We have sunglasses, and you want to see how they feel. If you’re buying waders and boots, you want to try them on. You want to get a feel for a rod for casting,” he said.

While the number of guided river outings early in the summer is limited, he said there is interest in fishing tours beginning in June and running through October.

The San Juan Angler plans to modify its tours this season. It won’t provide transportation, instead tours will meet at the river and health restrictions like social distancing will be in place.

“A fly rod is 9 feet long, and so it sort of enforces social distancing all by itself,” Glenn said.

Evan Buchanan, owner of Durango Hobby, was kicking himself for not getting a website set up for his new business before the stay-at-home order closed the shop.

Some sales were conducted by phone, with remote-control drones mailed to customers.

“We’re so new we don’t have a website. We’ve been reliant on our Facebook page for communication with our customers during the stay-at-home order.

“We had some regular customers that we provided mail service to. They were home and going crazy with not a lot to do. But other than that, business had come to a complete standstill,” he said.

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