GREENSBORO, N.C. — Retailers, museums and salons are some of the businesses that will be able to welcome back all their customers soon.
Governor Roy Cooper announced that the state's coronavirus restrictions will ease Friday.
Some businesses will be able to open at full capacity with safety guidelines in place.
A year into the pandemic, some of those Greensboro business owners have mixed feelings about returning to full capacity.
Jennifer Graf owns Vintage to Vogue Boutique downtown and said they're already seeing more foot traffic as the weather warms.
"I've started getting back my mojo," Graf said.
The Greensboro History Museum hopes the eased guidelines will help people feel more comfortable coming out.
"Being allowed to fill up a space, one might not have even thought of that a year ago and a half ago. But now it's a big deal," Museum Director Carol Hart said.
Others are holding off on taking the next step.
"I understand the need economically to try to have a larger capacity, more revenue," Salon 818 Co-Owner Jaime Wright said, "That's great but at the same time it's more important to me that the safety of myself and my clients and my family."
She's seeing one client at a time.
"Flooding these businesses now at 75% or 100% capacity I think it's just going to be, we're going to see case numbers rising," Wright said.
International Civil Rights Center and Museum CEO John Swaine said they'll hold off on increasing capacity as well.
"We have staff that we must protect and one museum is not the same as another museum," Swaine said, "Some museums have outside spaces and therefore they can accommodate more guests."
He said the center's business model has completely changed in the last year--offering online tours.
Graf said it will take time to break customers out of the habit of shopping over the computer.
"Now that smaller businesses will be able to open their doors, the reason why Peoples shop small businesses because it's an experience," Graf said.
Executive Order 204 will go into effect on Friday, March 26 at 5 p.m. and expire on April 30. The mask mandate and social distancing guidelines will remain in place.