LA MESA, Calif. – As soon as the doors swung open, customers began showing up.

“This is great, I’m tired of being home,” said one shopper at Act II, a La Mesa-based consignment shop.

Like most of us, many customers have been sitting home, unwilling to buy clothes. After all, why get all dressed up with no place to go?

“I know!” she agreed. “You’ve got money and no place to spend it.”

Some corrected that issue Thursday, less than 24 hours after the state approved San Diego County’s proposal to move farther through stage 2 of California’s reopening plan. It allows for dine-in restaurants as well as in-store retail stores to open in the county with some modifications, officials said late Wednesday.

Many local retail stores previously were approved to operate only curbside or by delivery with no in-person shopping allowed to stem the tide of COVID-19.

Showing up in downtown La Mesa Thursday, finding which stores were open was the tricky part.

“I had no idea today was the day that shops would reopen,” said customer Zaire Coine, who stopped in earlier in the day. “I’ve never been here before, but it was open and others were not.”

The reopening is generating excitement with other customers, too, Act II owner Deanne Ross said.

“We had 10 calls in a row,” Ross said. “It was, ‘Oh my god, oh my god, you’re open. I want to be the first one in.'”

Ross started bringing back employees several weeks ago. That decision allowed her to hit the ground running. In order to meet new guidelines, she said she’s making sure the shop meets social distancing requirements by only allowing in seven customers at a time.

“I definitely have new things,” she said. “I have a chain across my front door. People have to ring a bell because our store isn’t big enough.

“We can only allow a certain amount of people in, otherwise, it gets too crowded too fast.”