Bradenton shopping malls closing or cutting hours because of coronavirus

Bradenton area malls are closing or cutting hours in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simon Property Group announced Wednesday that after extensive discussions with federal, state and local officials and in recognition of the need to address the spread of COVID-19, it will close all of its retail properties, including the Ellenton Premium Outlets.

This measure will take effect 7 p.m. Wednesday and and will end on March 29.

“The health and safety of our shoppers, retailers and employees is of paramount importance and we are taking this step to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” David Simon, chairman and CEO of Simon, said in a press release.

A handful of people toured the barren shopping center in Ellenton on Wednesday evening. Some expressed confusion or frustration, while others were more understanding of the precaution.

Alex Harris, a Palmetto resident, was among the would-be-shoppers.

“I feel like it’s the zombie apocalypse,” he said. “I was wondering where everybody was and I forgot all about the coronavirus.”

The Mall at University Town Center was staying open, but with reduced hours.

“As of yesterday, we reduced operating hours. The center reduced operating hours are now Mondays – Saturdays 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sundays noon – 6 p.m.,” Lauren Clark, mall marketing and sponsorship director, said in an email Wednesday.

“We previously shuttered our valet, closed our play area and spaced furniture seating in the common area to aid in the national social distancing recommendations,” she said.

But while the mall was open, most stores were closed and shoppers were scarce. Among the few businesses open was the The B-12 Store.

According to nurse and employee Jessica Hansen, business had been slow but many of their regulars had still been frantic calling and coming in for the supplement injections offered.

“We’re going to to wait it out,” Hansen said. “Hopefully we stay open to keep people boosted with their immunity.”

Starting in early March, the mall increased the cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch, high-traffic surfaces with a stronger, more effective product, and increased the number of hand sanitizing stations throughout the center.

“This situation is very fluid, so we have created a section on our website to keep guests up-to-date, https://www.mallatutc.com/covid19,” she wrote.

While the Mall at UTC is staying open for now, the Macy’s corporate office issued a statement to customers that it was temporarily closing its stores.

Grace Vitale, 30, was one of the few people in the mall late Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m here because there’s not much else to do,” Vitale said.

Vitale works at a chiropractor’s office, and it has already shutdown because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“I’ve been spending time at the park. I went to to the gym today,” Vitale said. “Found out two hours later when I got an email from the gym that they closed.”

In response to the widespread COVID-19 outbreak, Macy’s, Inc. announced that it will temporarily close all stores by end of business Tuesday through March 31, 2020. This includes all Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bluemercury, Macy’s Backstage, Bloomingdales the Outlet and Market by Macy’s stores. Macy’s, Inc. will provide benefits and compensation to its affected workforce.

“The health and safety of our customers, colleagues and communities is our utmost priority. As a result of the recent COVID-19 developments, we have decided to temporarily close our stores. We will work with government and health officials to assess when we will reopen our stores and safely bring our colleagues back to work,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc. “During this closure, we will continue to serve our customers through our e-commerce sites.”

Automatic doors and sanitizer dispensers greeted those at the Mall at UTC, a stark contrast to DeSoto Square mall where there aren’t automatic doors and the sanitizer dispensers were empty on Wednesday afternoon.

The mall remains open but has also reduced its operating hours to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Those new hours went into effect on Tuesday.

At Street Scenes in DeSoto, owner Wadai Abraham was hoping they could remain open with the skeleton hours.

“We don’t have a lot of mall traffic anyway, just our regular customers,” Abraham said.

What little buisness they do have, the COVID-19 outbreak is killing, he said. He’s had to cut hours for the couple of employees the store has, but he doesn’t want to cut their hours completely.

“Any money is better than no money,” Abraham said. “We’ll survive, but what about the employees?”

This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 6:16 PM.