Please keep in mind when you are carefully weighing what protocols to put into place in the interest of protecting everyone from COVID-19:

Try to avoid one-size fits all blanket proclamations that completely obliterate business. We entrepreneurs are a determined and creative bunch by nature; if there’s a way to safely take care of our customers, we will find it.

For example, restaurants may switch to a take out or delivery-only model temporarily, if they feel that is worthwhile vs. closing completely – but that decision should be up to them.

My two retail stores typically operate with one employee at a time. We may have one or two customers at a time throughout the day, and rarely more than a handful. We wipe everything down, we have hand sanitizer and gloves available for all employees and customers. I understand we may reach a tipping point where that’s no longer enough. If/when that happens:

We can very easily convert to a local home-delivery model. We can take pictures and videos of our merchandise, post them on social media, take payments over the phone or through our website, and leave the package at the customer’s door.

We can ramp up our existing online presence, selling more to ship all over the world from our own websites, eBay, Amazon, etc. (as we have done for 21 years.)

There will be enough work involved adding more items to our website that we can keep at least one employee working (again, even if the store is closed to the public.)

So if you do find it necessary to close “non-essential” businesses, as long as I still have access to my business locations to use them as more of a warehouse for my inventory, and as long as the USPS is still delivering, I can keep some kind of cash flow going, and protect against total financial ruin. Again, we business owners will do whatever it takes for our customers. I think the cities in which we exist would still like to have a record store when this is all over.

We may not be essential to society during a pandemic, but this business is essential to my family. I am asking that you are careful with your decisions and consider there are completely safe ways, as described above, our retail stores can still serve the public without ever coming into physical contact, as long as we have access to our merchandise and are free to fill orders.

Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Tony Cicalese, owner

We Got The Beats Record Stores, Oakland Park and Lauderhill FL.