Few stores remain open at Midtown Plaza amid COVID-19 outbreak

Escalators, empty halls and shuttered doors is all a person will see at Midtown Plaza these days.

One week after Saskatchewan’s first presumptive case of COVID-19, the only noticeable thing at Saskatoon’s largest mall was the piercing silence filling the building on Thursday.

Holly Klassen was the lone employee working at Michael Hill jewellers on Thursday. She admits she really didn’t want to go to work when she woke up in the morning.

“I really didn’t want to come in today — I mean, the whole mall is pretty much closed,” she said. “It’s a little eerie coming to work.”

Only nine businesses remain open, but it will be down to eight on Friday, as Michael Hill will shut its doors.

Out of the roughly dozen employees still working, not many were too thrilled to be in business as other stores and malls across the country shutter shop doors in the face of a global pandemic.

Tim Urton wondered what he was doing cleaning counters and re-sorting already organized merchandise at Jersey City to pass the time.

“It’s just crazy. It’s mind blowing. I literally don’t know why we’re still open,” he said.

Holly Klassen is uncertain when she will return to Michael Hill jewellers as the store is closing temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

It was business as usual for workers at the mall until Monday. That’s when multiple stores put up signs on the front door saying they will close temporarily. More and more businesses closed on Tuesday, and then another wave of stores closed on Wednesday and Thursday as Midtown trimmed its operating hours.

Farbod Gharehbaghi working at iWorld Connect thought fellow shops across from him were sleeping in.

“At first when we got here, we saw RW & Co. not having their doors open, so we thought they were late or something,” Gharehbaghi said. “Then the longer we waited we saw no one was opening the doors. As days went by, more stores started doing that.”

The only place where any people were gathered was the Midtown Common, the new food court at the mall. Roughly half of the restaurants remained open for the construction workers still working on-site for a round of renovations at the mall.

Also in the food court was Dianne Peters and Brenda Lemoel. The pair of seniors took a gamble by going to the mall, but pandemic or not, Peters wasn’t letting anything get in the way of her daily coffee visit with friends.

“They’re saying on TV not to congregate with more than 10 people — I don’t do that,” Peters said mentioning the areas she stays away from in her group home, like the auditorium.

“So I’m following the rules by just sticking around a few people.”

Empty lobbies and shuttered storefronts are all that remain at Midtown Plaza. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

Most employees were having difficulties passing the time. In a world where its unavoidable to talk about or mention the pandemic, cleaning the same slab of counter over and over provides fleeting entertainment.

“Normally I would clean to pass the time on a slow day, but even that is minimal,” Klassen said. “Once in a while you get a power outage, or last year we had an explosion that closed down the mall for a day or so. Things like that do happen, but in those moments you’re almost happy as a retail professional to go home for the day.”

Without having a job to go to on Friday, Klassen is prepared to apply for the newly adapted employee benefits program while she waits for businesses to reopen.

“I’m keeping a positive outlook on things,” she said. “It doesn’t feel right. It makes you think about things… too much time to think, and not in a good way.”