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1 R Special Advertising Section | SUNDAY, AUGUST 16, 2020 5 employees. Kubiak said Bartell customers have been eager to comply with the safety measures from the start of the pandemic. “Customers have shown their appreciation by bringing in food and treats for store teams, as well as flowers and cards showing their appreciation,” she said. For Valerie Madison, who designs and creates unique jewelry from ethically sourced materials, the pandemic struck at a pivotal moment for her business, Valerie Madison Fine Jewelry. It coincided with her transition from private showings in a small studio to an all-new model: public hours in a much larger space in the Madrona neighborhood. Madison, who offers virtual consultations with jewelry shop- pers, has seen her online sales nearly double in the past few months. She said the digital side of her business has served as a bridge to the opening of her new showroom. “The pandemic has forced us to lean into and strengthen the digital component of our business, as well as our internal systems,” she said. “We feel that if we can get through this, we can get through anything.” She called the surge in online orders a “stressful blessing” that kept her business afloat while she coped with stresses such as the halted renovation of the new showroom and temporary furloughs of some employees. Because her brand has national reach, she said, online orders will remain an essential part of the business. The Madrona showroom, when it opens, will be triple the size of her old studio, allowing her to serve walk-in customers for the first time. “We’ll be learning as we go about how best to navigate proper sanitization in our store, especially since the whole point of coming into a shop like ours is to touch almost everything,” Madison said. “We will have hand sanitizer at the entrance and at checkout. Our staff will have custom company masks and we will be posting staff photos on the wall so you can see what we look like.” on a post near the door — the first thing that customers see when they enter the store. Free disposable face masks are avail- able for those who forgot their own. Brinker says he has beefed up inventory by contracting with a British importer specializing in unique sweets, bringing in a variety of European, Japanese, Canadian and Mexican candies. Free samples, long a mainstay of candy shops, have been discon- tinued, although Brinker plans to use french fry bags to send free samples home with custom- ers. As small retailers such as Brinker start to reopen, they can follow similar safety measures already enacted by essential busi- nesses like grocers and pharma- cies, including Bartell Drugs, which operates 67 locations in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Hannah Kubiak, Bartell’s com- munications manager, says safety practices at all stores consist of visual reminders to maintain appropriate distance; custom- ized pin-pad overlays; plexiglass shields at check-out kiosks at the pharmacy and front registers; increased frequency of cleanings and disinfecting storewide; sani- tized shopping carts and baskets; and protective equipment for all Continued from previous page Signs remind customers of the new safety measures at Sweet Mickey’s. Seattle-based jeweler Valerie Madison plans to open a new showroom in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle. For now, she’s doing virtual appointments and selling her pieces online. Bartell Drugs employees show off their protective equipment at the beginning of the pandemic this spring. COURTESY OF AL KEMP COURTESY OF VALERIE MADISON COURTESY OF BARTELL DRUGS