T-R photo by Thomas Nelson A sign outside of Stepping Stone Christian Book Store informs the public of the stores closure and its availability because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Retail businesses in Marshalltown are struggling in the COVID-19 environment.

On Thursday Gov. Kim Reynolds issued another proclamation limiting and closing retails stores across the state because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proclamation effectively closed the doors of the majority of storefronts on Marshalltown’s Main Street.

“It was a devastating blow,” said Deb Millizer, Marshalltown Central Business District’s executive director. “It’s going to be a difficult road.”

While the news wasn’t particularly good for Main Street businesses, it wasn’t unexpected or world ending.

“A lot of businesses have been anticipating the order,” Millizer said.

Rhetta Schmitt, owner of State Street Trading Company, closed her doors on March 18.

“We were planning on just being closed until [March] 31,” Schmitt said. “It’s been kind of tough because people are kind of scared to go out and do anything.”

The longer she has to keep her doors closed the more revenue she loses.

“I want everybody to be healthy and everybody to stay safe, obviously, but it sucks,” Schmitt said.

Since she has a consignment store, Schmitt only has so much product she can sell before she runs out.

“When we sell the majority of our items we won’t have any left,” Schmitt said. “It’s not like I buy things from China and resell, it’s all from people from the community.”

With continued support Schmitt could continue working for a month or two, she said. “But, then we’d have to close because we’d be out of stuff.”

Schmitt is taking extra measures to make sure the clothes she sells online have been cleaned and sanitized.

“That makes me feel better,” Schmitt said.

Her online sales have helped keep her afloat.

“Even sharing a post is just as helpful as purchasing something because then maybe someone else will see it,” Schmitt said.

Stepping Stone Christian Book Store is also continuing online shopping while the physical doors are closed.

Prior to the governor’s proclamation “I had gone to only being open every other day at my two stores because I had to lay off all my team members because the sales were so low,” said Mindy Van Dyke, Stepping Stone owner. “We are taking orders over the phone and we did find out we can do curbside delivery by appointment. We can mail directly to the home.”

The closure has made a huge impact on Van Dyke’s store.  

“It is significantly affecting our business, probably as bad as if not worse than the tornado,” she said.

Van Dyke’s store survival will depend on the small business relief from Iowa and federal help.

“We are taking it one day at a time and trusting the lord,” she said.

This would have been one of Van Dyke’s busiest times because of the Lenten season.

“This is usually our second busiest time of the year,” she said. “Now it’s worse than our worst time of the year.”

Millizer has seen a lot of inventiveness from Main Street business owners like Van Dyke and Schmitt.

“We’re all trying to find creative ways to still serve people,” Millizer said.

Even if businesses close doors, the Marshalltown community’s resilience keeps Schmitt positive.

After the 2018 tornado she had to close her doors for five months, but when she reopened the residents came out in support.

“We made it through that just fine,” Schmitt said.

Closing isn’t ideal, but it’s not going to make her close her doors permanently.

“We’ll be OK, because with the tornado everybody was really supportive,” Schmitt said.

After the tornado people came and helped clean her store and continue to patronize her business.

“That was really encouraging,” Schmitt said. “We’re OK for now, but hopefully this doesn’t last through the summer. It is a scary situation and you don’t really know what’s going to happen. This has never happened before.”

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Contact Thomas Nelson at (641)753-6611 or tnelson@timesrepublican.com