RELEVANT AUTHORITY: Rumor has it that Governor Ducey will give us essentially free rein to re-open all aspects of our business on or around June 1st, to the extent that we don't have it already. The CDC has already issued updated guidance that surface contact is no longer believed to be a critical vector for COVID spread, so we could in theory reopen the arcade at any time. However, the CDC's same updated guidance re-emphasized that person-to-person respiratory spread is still considered a serious risk. COVID is, after all, a respiratory virus.
EXPLANATION: Look, I have been a strong advocate of limiting the duration of the shutdowns and getting businesses back open. I am a capitalist's own capitalist. Nobody on this planet should think I'm making this decision from a standpoint of fear or an agenda to keep small businesses (including mine, apparently) stifled so I can, I don't know, enjoy quarantine or something? I get that some people have taken advantage of this shutdown to enjoy a leisurely schedule of telework, if not an outright paid vacation. And I'm enough of an anti-commuting advocate to appreciate how much some people may be enjoying the extra daily time. But not all of us are lounging through this thing. Obviously health professionals are slammed. Everyone in food service has been working their tails off. I've also been busy beyond all insanity since the shutdown began. Turns out a couple of owners doing the work of ten staff members, or even half that, presents difficulty.
As I wrote recently, there is a very strong financial motive for DSG to reopen the game room. It is going to happen. Just not yet. And the bottom line is we need to see the numbers continue to improve/flatten/trend_better before it seems prudent from a business standpoint to proceed, and even better would be that occurring in tandem with more favorable official guidance.
We're not a church, fortunately, because choirs were apparently early spread vectors, and basically rooms full of speaking or singing people are very dangerous, which is why all the concerts are still getting postponed. A TCG tournament, however, is very like these things in terms of droplet emission, and a Dungeons & Dragons game is even worse so for its participants. In-store gameplay remains an acute concern, while ordinary shopping activity at DSG is reasonably safe at this point by current reckoning. And yes, we are buying Magic cards and video games and systems at this time.
Thank goodness, it's scorching hot outside already, and respiratory virii fare poorly under those conditions. Once you come indoors, a sick person or asymptomatic carrier can still spread COVID via droplets, however, so we're not out of the woods yet on that count either.
Thanks to the CDC guidance update cited above, we will likely open the arcade in the near future before opening the rest of the game room. We're wrapping up some upgrades and maintenance, and we're excited to let you all try them out.
Once we do re-open, the likelihood of us requiring waivers is high. Unless the Arizona House's bill to shield businesses from COVID lawsuits, a bill that passed just before the chamber adjourned sine die, gets taken up and passed in the state Senate, we're forced to make all comers sign a binding contract indemnifying us from their own potential plague-ridden outcomes, which also means we won't be able to let minors into the game room without parental accompaniment, since minors cannot be bound under contract, which is what a waiver is. I need the logistical hassle of running essentially a bowling alley but there's just the pro shop and no lanes, like I need a hole in my head. So as you might imagine, even if we were not already inclined to wait for the health and protection of our staff and player community, we are also inclined to wait to give the legal landscape time to get dressed and compose itself.
I mentioned the Magic Core Set 2021 Prerelease Week above. This is a tremendously smart thing Wizards has afforded stores the latitude to do. The prerelease may be run as any number of events (not limited to nine) over the course of the entire week. Stores that want to run a long series of eight-player pods, one at a time, to keep player counts low and reduce contagion risk, may do so, while still being able to sell through our prerelease product allotments and provide the prerelease gameplay experience our players enjoy so much. DSG won't be re-opening the game room for this event in the direct face of strongly prohibitive guidance at that time, but if the coast is about as clear as we can realistically expect in today's circumstances, we will end up going ahead with it.
Thank you for your continued understanding and cooperation.
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