Card shops turn to online business and ‘breaking’
It was a typical busy Saturday afternoon at Hoody’s Collectibles in Beaverton, Ore. Customers were purchasing wax boxes and rapidly ripping them open, while others were thumbing through discount bins. Life was as close to normal as possible for collectors and the card shop founder and owner, Tait Hoodenpyl.
Two days later, on March 23, everything abruptly changed. The shop’s foot traffic dropped by about 80 percent. That’s when the Oregon governor – following leads from other governors around the country – ordered residents to “shelter in place.”
“There were a lot of people coming in for their last hurrah, so to speak,” said Hoodenpyl about the hectic Saturday before lockdown. “But we didn’t know. Everyone was pretty sure it was going to be put in place, but we didn’t know what the affect was going to be.”
Hoodenpyl didn’t have to close his shop, but he had to enact strict guidelines: one or two people in the store at a time, five maximum; customers have to stand six feet apart at all times; if purchasing items and using the credit card machine, it has to be wiped down before and after the transaction.
“I have tape set up in the store so people know where to stand if they’re next in line,” Hoodenpyl said. “If there’s someone hovering over each other, I just try to gently say,
