We'll continually update this post as the COVID-19 situation rapidly evolves in Maryland. We have immense pride in being one of the states to take proactive measures, and are grateful to the local resources that make it possible. If you're looking for information about masks, visit our blog entry about crafting your own mask using our pattern or check out options for purchasing a pre-made mask.

May 15, 2020

The state of Maryland and city of Baltimore have lifted the government mask mandates at this time. However, out of an abundance of caution, our team will continue wear and require masks within our space. We plan to re-evaluate this status on a weekly basis.

If you are unable or unwilling to wear a mask when visiting us, we'd be happy to arrange a video conference and contact-free pickup for your order.

Thank you for understanding our desire to err on the side of caution just a little longer. Your health and our team's health remain our top priority.

November 12, 2020

Due to the recent spike of positive COVID results in Maryland, we're implementing a couple extra measures to protect our clients' and our team's safety.

• Our open hours remain the same for drop-off and pick-up.
• Only one client will be allowed in the showroom at a time. If you'd like to guarantee a consultation time, you can make an appointment.
• To better enforce the "one at a time" rule, the front door will remain locked. Please ring the "Chase Street" doorbell to enter.
• All clients will wear a mask over nose and mouth when in the showroom. Disposable masks available upon request.
• All clients and team members will use hand sanitizer before entering.
• We will continue to offer contactless curbside pickup indefinitely.

Our entire team plans to get COVID tested this week out of an abundance of caution, but none of us have had contact with a confirmed case at this time. For more information about testing centers in the Baltimore City Area, visit https://coronavirus.baltimorecity.gov/where-get-tested-covid-19-baltimore-city.

June 12, 2020

As of 5pm today, Baltimore City retail establishments may open to customers at 50% capacity. A complete list of restrictions is available at https://www.baltimorecity.gov/sites/default/files/06122020160515-0001.pdf.

We are taking the weekend to thoroughly clean our showroom and will reopen for clients on Tuesday, June 16th, 2020. We will continue to offer contact-less curbside pickup indefinitely. To keep our team and client safe, we'll observe the following safety measures:

• We will continue to offer contactless curbside pickup indefinitely.
• Only one client will be allowed in the showroom at a time. If you'd like to guarantee a consultation time, you can make an appointment.
• All clients and team members will use hand sanitizer before entering.
• All clients will wear a mask when in the showroom. Disposable masks available upon request.
• We follow all aspects of the Maryland "Back to Business Pledge." 

Please call or email if you have any questions at all!

June 1, 2020

For the first time, we've created pre-bundled packs of some of our most popular items! Our Health & Safety Packs include a variety of items including masks, hand sanitizers, no-contact tools, face shields, and ear savers/clips. As with everything else we offer, we're still observing social distancing and following the Maryland "Back to Business Pledge." 

We are still operating:

• Curbside pickup is available! When you check out, you'll see an option to select pickup instead of shipping. When your order's ready, you'll receive an email with instructions for picking up. We'll keep our pickup hours updated at https://chasestreetae.com/pages/contact-us.
• We're not experiencing any delays with order fulfillment. If you expect to place a rush order, give us a call first to confirm.
• Shipping on masks is no longer free since we can accommodate curbside pick-up, but we've lowered prices accordingly!

Let us know what we can do to make your "new normal" a little easier or more pleasant.

May 15, 2020

As of 5pm today, Governor Hogan is allowing some businesses to re-open in Maryland. We strongly support Mayor Young's extension of the "Stay at Home" order for Baltimore City, since it keeps our team and our clients safe. Therefore, our showroom will remain closed to the public until Baltimore City meets the mayor's standards for increased testing capacity, decrease in community deaths, and decrease in new COVID-19 cases.

However, we are still operating with the following measures in place:

• Curbside pickup is available! When you check out, you'll see an option to select pickup instead of shipping. When your order's ready, you'll receive an email with instructions for picking up. We'll keep our pickup hours updated at https://chasestreetae.com/pages/contact-us.
• We're not experiencing any delays with order fulfillment. If you expect to place a rush order, give us a call first to confirm.
• Shipping on all masks and mask-related products is still free, to encourage our customers to stay safely at home!
• We have taken Maryland's "Back to Business Pledge" and will be following all recommended safety measures once we begin to re-open.

April 9, 2020

On April 3, 2020, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) provided recommendations for wearing a homemade mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19, a.k.a Coronavirus. Chase Street A&E has developed a precise laser-cut pattern to make tailored masks in three different sizes, and including a pocket for a replaceable filter (such as a coffee filter or cutout from a vacuum bag). While not necessarily medical-grade, this mask will provide some level of protection when worn properly, without depriving front-line health workers of their personal protective equipment (PPE).

For more information, visit our blog entry about crafting your own mask using our pattern or check out our options for purchasing a pre-made mask.

March 30, 2020

As of 8pm today, the Maryland stay-at-home executive order issued by Governor Hogan goes into effect. We are still accepting, shipping, and delivering orders because the executive order allows non-essential business to continue minimal operations. Our team is able to function almost entirely via telework, allowing us to keep you and ourselves safe. If you have any questions regarding our processes or safety measures, please don't hesitate to reach out.

We're also partnering with a couple of the local makerspaces to assist in efforts to manufacture supplementary PPE for medical workers:

• Station North Tool Library's Home Sewing Network - Crisis Response Masks
• Open Works Baltimore's Makers Unite! Face Shield Project

Get involved if you can, and/or follow our progress on social media - @chasestreetae!

March 24, 2020

Yesterday we closed our doors to the public per the direction of Governor Hogan. We're proud to be operating in a state that takes such proactive measures to mitigate a crisis! We continue to operate as allowed using the following plan:

Safety - The health and safety of our team comes first. We're currently following the CDC's precautions for businesses. We're all able to answer phone calls, respond to email, and complete most orders from the safety of our homes.

Ordering - You can still order online. If you'd prefer to have us put your order together for you, feel free to give us a call at 833-33-CHASE or email sales@chasestreetae.com and we can send you an invoice to review and pay online.

Processing - The workshop will continue operating with proper safety/health restrictions in place. At this time we do not expect any delays in processing.

Pickup/Delivery - We will not offer local pickup while the non-essential business closure remains in place. However, we can deliver to anyone in Baltimore City/County.

Shipping - We have reduced free shipping to orders above $99. If you have an item for pickup that you'd prefer to have shipped, just let us know. We will continue to ship all orders as scheduled unless there are delays from USPS, UPS, or FEDEX.

Supplies - All of our engraving, embroidery, and color sublimation processes are in-house, so unaffected by supply chain disruptions. While some of our blank items come from China, most of our most popular items are either well-stocked or sourced locally. For example, our slate wall hanging is upcycled from Second Chance in Baltimore City. We can engrave on almost any material, so it's a great time to get creative with awards and gifts and reduce reliance on foreign sources. 

March 19, 2020

You can skip to our ordering/pickup/delivery plan here.

We are still operating! Here's what we're doing to reduce risk:

• Reduced hours - we will open as normal but close every day by 6pm. If you need to visit later, contact us to make an appointment. Hours will be up-to-date on our site and Google Maps.
• Customer limit - we will only allow one customer in our showroom at a time in order to maintain 6 feet of distance as recommended by the CDC. You can wait outside if there's already someone here, or call ahead to make an appointment.
• Prep for shelter-in-place - If non-essential businesses are ordered to close, we will still be able to process orders due to the dual residence/commercial nature of our building. We will continue to take orders online, ship directly to our customers, and telework when necessary. We do not expect this to cause order processing delays at this time.

March 18, 2020

We're continuing to follow the CDC's precautions for businesses and will remain open until otherwise directed. We conduct a thorough sanitization of the showroom and work area at each shift change, and ensure all customers maintain six feet of separation at all times.

If we receive official direction to close, remote work has always been a core element of our business, since Shana and Chris (used to) travel often! Teleworking will be a breeze and we're hoping that legislation passes to allow us to continue operations as business temporarily slows down. We've got a crazy-long list of internal projects we've been wanting to do to improve the business, and our #1 business priority is keeping our team employed and safe.

We wanted to give everyone a snapshot on how we plan to spend time while maintaining social distancing!

• Robbie is going to start showing Lauren the ins and outs of embroidery work. Lauren’s interest in embroidery stems from a passion of crafting and growing up watching her grandmothers knit, sew, and crocheting gifts for the family. Going from a light hobby to commercial applications is going to require a great deal of learning.
• One of our favorite learning tools here at Chase Street A&E is watching training videos. We've got a long list of seminars from the Awards and Personalization Association that we're going to catch up on. Not only is it totally entertaining but a great way to absorb information. Also very easily done sitting in your own living rooms sending one another links and chatting via video conference.
• Chris will continue to break things and then fix them.
• Shana plans to update the award offerings on the site and add new options. When things get really boring, she'll probably keep building cheeky examples of trophies and gifts to recognize people who've been particularly helpful during these "interesting" times. Watch our Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to see the latest!
• We're all doing a ton of online shopping. You can support local businesses (not just us) by doing the same! Instead of Amazon or Walmart, who might be running into supply-chain issues, check in with your neighborhood shops who might be offering creative solutions to enable isolation. For example, we've got free shipping for orders over $175 and it's a great time to start getting holiday shopping out of the way! Not to mention we have Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, and Father's Day just around the corner. We'd also like to highlight our personalized puzzles! Tired of the view of your computer screen? You can get that awesome scenic photo you took from vacation printed on a puzzle.

Let us know how best to support/help you and your friends/coworkers/family. We're still all-in!

March 12, 2020

In light of the WHO declaration that COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is a pandemic, we want to provide reliable resources for our friends and neighbors to get the latest update and avoid misinformation. We'd also like to let you know our internal plan, in case you have a pending order or expect to order anything soon.

National and International Resources:

• Center for Disease Control - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
• World Health Organization - https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Local Resources:

• Baltimore City - https://health.baltimorecity.gov/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov
• Baltimore Sun's list of closures - https://www.baltimoresun.com/coronavirus/bs-fe-cancelled-events-20200311-yojgvsdntraubkdz2cjjl4qsgy-story.html
• Maryland - https://phpa.health.maryland.gov/Pages/Novel-coronavirus.aspx
• Washington D.C. - https://coronavirus.dc.gov/
• Virginia - http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/surveillance-and-investigation/novel-coronavirus/

How to keep yourself healthy:

• CDC recommendations 
• WHO recommendations

What this means for Chase Street A&E:

Safety - The health and safety of our team comes first. We're currently following the CDC's precautions for businesses and will remain open until otherwise directed. We're all able to answer phone calls, respond to email, and complete most orders from home if necessary. In the event that we are directed to close or choose to do so out of an abundance of caution, we'll post on social media and our website immediately.

Ordering - If you're self-isolating or avoiding public places in general, you can order online. If you'd prefer to have us put your order together, feel free to give us a call at 833-33-CHASE or email sales@chasestreetae.com and we can send you an invoice to review and pay online. You don't have to come in at all!

Pickup - If you choose local pickup in Baltimore, we are still open and taking all precautions to keep our team and customers safe. If you'd prefer to pick up at the front door and not come in, we're happy to meet you outside and can take your payment via mobile device or online invoice. We also have hand sanitizer on our front desk that you're welcome to use!

Shipping - As a reminder, shipping is free on any order above $175. If you have an item for pickup that you'd prefer to have shipped, just let us know. We will continue to ship all orders as scheduled unless there are delays from USPS, UPS, or FEDEX.

Supplies - All of our engraving, embroidery, and color sublimation processes are in-house, so unaffected by supply chain disruptions. While some of our blank items come from China, most of our most popular items are either well-stocked or sourced locally. For example, our slate wall hanging is upcycled from Second Chance in Baltimore City. We can engrave on almost any material, so it's a great time to get creative with awards and gifts and reduce reliance on foreign sources. Shop local!

Why do you care about our plan?

The Coronavirus is guaranteed to take a toll on our collective mental health and morale, even if the physical health consequences are mitigated. If you're stuck at home or worried about the mindset of your friends, coworkers, and loved ones, we'd like to help you focus on the positive. If you have unexpected downtime, maybe it's a good opportunity to think about your office's recognition program, such as quarterly awards. Or you can knock out Mother's Day or Father's Day gifts now, not to mention getting way ahead on your holiday shopping. If you've got some extra time to put real thought into gifts and recognition, it might brighten someone's day in an otherwise unsettling time.