Monday is a big day for many retailers around the country as they reopen after lockdown.
On Grattan Street in Sligo it has been all go behind closed doors this weekend, as some of the long-established and family run businesses prepare to open their doors to shoppers again.
The main priority for all businesses is safety for staff and customers. They've all put the recommended social distancing and sanitising recommendations in place, but there are innovations too, depending on the type of business, and the space they have.
Eamonn Cunningham of EJ Menswear has the luxury of plenty of space and has put a one-way system in place. Customers will come in one door where there is a station dispensing non-touch sanitiser, disposable masks and gloves, and leave through a second door.
Use of changing rooms will be limited and anything tried on, but not bought, will be put aside for two days and steamed before being put back out for sale. One initiative which is proving popular with customers, Eamonn says, is shopping by appointment, particularly for suits.
For Kevin Flannery in the Record Room, space is an issue, so he is going to be limiting customers to one person upstairs and one downstairs at any one time. Like other retailers on the street, browsing is a concern. Something they normally like people to do is now a safety concern.
Kevin will have gloves available for customers but ideally he says it would be a case of people requesting specific music, and if they look at a few CDs for instance, those would have to be cleaned afterwards.
In the family-run Cordners Shoes browsing is also a concern. Linda Foley says it is hard to know what to expect when they open the doors again but one thing she's certain of is that there'll be a lot of children coming in whose feet have grown during lockdown.
She's had special screens made so that a parent and child can sit on one side and a staff member, wearing mask and visor, will be on the other side to carrying out the fitting.
Like some of the other shops on the street, they've been operating online during lockdown and Linda is now hoping that customers will consider a mix of old and new style shopping.
If people browse online at www.shoeshop.ie before coming into the shop, and then just try on a few pairs of shoes that would help with social distancing and also limit the amount of shoes that have to be put out of commission, because, as with clothes shops, shoes that have been tried on have to be put aside until it's safe to put them back on the shelves.
John Kent is also uncertain how things will work out, particularly in his case running a sports shop, when there is little or no sport happening, although he was glad to hear that teams will be back training at the end of the month.
John says there's a sense in Sligo that the first few days of business will be busy but, summing up the feelings of his fellow retailers on Grattan Street, for them, it's a journey into the unknown.
They'll have to play it by ear but they are all looking forward to welcoming their customers back albeit for a new shopping experience.
