LOS ANGELES: For Zohrab Mahdessian, owner of Jasmine's Garden flower shop in Los Angeles, the reopening of some stores in California on Friday couldn't have come at a better time - Sunday is Mother's Day in the US.
Businesses in the flower district in Skid Row reopen in time for Mother's Day on May 8, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. He usually gets upwards of 150 orders for Mother's Day, one of his biggest days of the year, but so far he has only gotten about 60. Elsewhere throughout the county, including in Santa Monica and Venice, few people were seen out shopping, attesting to the difficulty in restarting an economy that has suffered billions of dollars in losses for a state that boasts the fifth-largest economy in the world.
The majority of souvenir shops along Hollywood Boulevard also remained shuttered with only a handful of tourists outside the Hard Rock Cafe - which set up a table on the sidewalk - buying trinkets.