There is one word John Tartz, owner of the Wild Rose Boutique Post Offices in Castle Pines and Lone Tree, hears more than any other when people walk into his store: Unique.
He says he often hears people come in and say, "This is the most unique post office I’ve ever been to."
Part of the store is a boutique shop with seemingly thousands of all kinds of items for sale.
“You can pick up anything from cards to mugs to placards to, you name it — it’s here in this store and it’s all very unique,” Tartz said.
The other part of the store is a US Post Office able to do most things larger post offices can do, like accept and ship letters or packages. Most customers scan over the boutique items on the way to the post office counter — that’s what really brings them in. But in this time of the coronavirus pandemic, it also means that they could carry much more than just packages and letters into the building.
“What we are trying to do is make sure we clean up after every one of our customers," Tartz said. "We’ve installed a plexiglass shield now. We use gloves. Just taking the same precautions that I’m sure most other businesses are taking to make sure that my employees are safe and the customers that leave here are safe as well."
Even so, John says some of his employees still didn’t feel safe working so closely with customers and they chose not to come back to work. That is why the two stores, Castle Pines and Lone Tree, had to close down for a couple of weeks until Tartz had enough employees to reopen with reduced hours of operation.
“We’ve tried to work with each person individually to make sure they are comfortable working, and that the environment here is such that we are safe," Tartz said. "I have some employees who will probably come back when they see that it is safe but I have others with underling conditions who may never want to come back.”
He said he plans on staying open as long as he can all while doing his best to try and serve the community.