Guest column: Madelyn Jones on saving her bridal store in the age of Corona Virus
The following is a guest article written by Madelyn Jones. She owns a bridal store here in Albuquerque.
As the owner of a bridal store here in Albuquerque I am furious about the current shutdown and the way it has been carried out. The Gov. has single-handedly trampled my livelihood and the Constitution. Worse, we the people have no recourse.
Here is my story.
Bridal gowns are dresses that are ordered from the factories of the bridal designers. Unlike regular merchandise dresses are not in a warehouse ready to go. They are made when the bride orders. The process takes from 6 months or more to get the dresses.
When the dress arrives we have to process it by looking at the dress for problems along with steaming the dress and contacting the bride for her try on to make sure everything is ready to go. Along with the bride’s dress are the other orders for bridesmaids, mother of the bride, and tuxedos. Everything is done by ordering and paying ahead of time.
We followed the rules and closed our store to new business and furloughed our employees. We went to the store everyday because we have shipments arriving daily that we have to pick up and process so the customer can pick up their purchases. All of this can be done through appointments and minimal to no social contact.
Our store was checked one day by the fire department for being closed which we were. We were OK’d . Since then APD traffic division came and removed us from the building saying we could not be in our store at all and issued a warning document that says if we are found in the store again we will be fined, jailed and or lose our business license.
Our major concern is that we have 35 dresses waiting in our store for brides and this is the busiest time of the year for weddings and we can’t access their dresses without disobeying the rules.
We are very concerned about our business and our employees but our customers have paid for their purchase and are being denied their product. I am no lawyer or doctor but common sense tells me government has overstepped its boundaries.
Our Governor has changed the all clear date so many times, I no longer believe that she has any intention of opening businesses until she is forced to by businesses opening up without her permission.
The Rio Grande Foundation and Power the Future New Mexico are collecting petitions for a plan to “Fairly Open New Mexico” that applies science and data to ALL businesses and activities in a transparent and consistent fashion.
