My name is Cristen Rosinski, and I own Aliber’s Bridal in Greenfield. As many people know, the wedding industry has been hit particularly hard because of social distancing guidelines and the closure of our state, and that includes specialty clothing stores. I have not sold a single wedding dress in the nine weeks we’ve been closed and with the new regulations concerning retail stores reopening, it will make it near impossible to sell specialty garments.
Small retailers such as myself and other locally owned retail shops have been hit particularly hard and while some have been able to pivot to some online sales, unfortunately it does not work that way for bridal shops. What we sell is considered a luxury garment, which brides try on before deciding to make a purchase, similar to test driving a car before buying (only more emotional) and having dressing rooms closed makes those sales impossible.
We are being lumped in with large retailers such as Kohls and JCPenney for dressing rooms when in reality our dressing rooms can be used in a much more controlled and safer environment. My biggest fear is that dressing rooms will not be opened up until phase 3 or even forgotten about until phase 4 and that is 6 to 10 weeks from now, which would be detrimental to bridal shops throughout the state. I feel that largely these policies have been a one-size-fits-all policy while there should be more approach to make some waivers for niche markets or small businesses.
In most retail clothing stores under the current guidelines, customers can browse racks of garments, purchase and try on at home with barely any customer service — and if something isn’t right, they can return the items they purchased.
Bridal shops are far more customer service-based, and we cannot allow our garments to be purchased and returned. We are an industry that requires our customers to special order their dress months in advance, and wedding dresses can take between 6 to 9 months to arrive once they have been ordered. Once a bride’s dress arrives, our seamstress will need another 8 to 10 weeks for alterations to be done, which are almost always necessary. With the current continued closure, our shop has not been able to help brides find their dresses for their fall/winter 2020 weddings, and any brides with July/August/September/October weddings have not been able to try on their dresses that have arrived. We are running out of time.
We, as an industry, are able to limit the number of customers in our store by going to an “appointment only” business plan, which most clothing retailers cannot do. We are able to space out our appointments so that there is time to clean and sanitize any high touch surfaces between customers. We are able to steam clean any garments that have been tried on by our customers (dry cleaning guidelines are 160 degrees to sanitize any virus, and our steamers put out over 230 degrees of heat)
We have masks and hand sanitizer, require our employees to wear masks, and have touchless invoicing and payment in place. We currently also have our bride’s actual wedding dresses waiting for them, and we prefer to have them tried on in the shop to make sure they fit and were made correctly. Letting brides take their wedding dress home and find that they do not fit causes anxiety and adds a lot of stress to an already highly emotional time.
Not allowing bridal shops to re-open in the state of Massachusetts while every state surrounding us has allowed bridal shops to open is causing our potential customers to shop out of state or online. This is causing our potential revenue to be spent elsewhere, when we, as a store, have already lost upwards of $90,000 during the three months we have been closed. This is also promoting another wave of the virus to hit, as shoppers are going out-of-state and potentially bringing the virus back with them.
I am urging our local governing officials to consider the impact these decisions are having on my local business, and consider ways to adjust for any niche businesses that can prove why they don’t fit “the typical model.” Currently, our niche business is remaining closed based on a typical retail business model. And we, as an industry, are in the only state that has refused to allow us to open.
In closing, please be aware that weddings have not stopped due to the pandemic. They may look a little different, and have fewer people — but couples are still getting married, and our brides still need to wear their wedding dress!
Cristen Rosinski is the owner of Aliber’s Bridal in Greenfield.