Article

COVID-19: Retailers closing stores for worker, customer safety

A growing number of retailers and brands are temporarily closing locations but will continue to pay workers through the closure period.

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March 16, 2020 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

A growing number of retail brands are temporarily shuttering store locations in light of COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic, and even Amazon is not immune as the world's largest online retailer is reporting out of stock items and slower shipping times.

The number of temporary store closings is nearing two dozen, according to a Business Insider report.

The pandemic began impacting the retail and hospitality sector in early January, as Retail Customer Experience began reporting.

Amazon's challenges are a Catch-22 event as the shortages and slower delivery is due to a "dramatic increase" in online shopping, according to its blog post this weekend.

"In the short term this is having an impact on how we serve our customers," Amazon said. "We are working around the clock with our selling partners to ensure availability on all of our products, and bring on additional capacity to deliver all of your orders."

Mid last week bath and beauty retailer Lush initially announced it was coping with the pandemic situation by meeting daily to assess and react to news and listed out actions it was taking such as deeper cleaning initiatives and maintaining strict adherence to protocols for cleanliness and employee training. It suspended in store events as well as public and private parties.

By Sunday Lush announced it was closing all 258 stores in the U.S. and Canada through March 29. In a letter it stated it would be "ensuring regular pay for all staff during this period."

"Because our products are all made fresh by hand weekly for our shops, these closures will also require us to significantly scale down our manufacturing and distribution operations for the duration of the shop closures," stated the letter.

On the same day Nike Inc. announced it was closing all of its stores in the U.S. and several other countries from March 16 to 27.

Several other retailers and grocer stores are reducing business hours in order to have more time to restock shelves and conduct more intensive cleaning processes.

Here's a list of retail closings as of March 16:

• Urban Outfitters closed until further notice as of March 15.
• Anthropologie closing through at least March 28.
• Reformation - temporarily close stores
• Lululemon closingall retail locations — including onsite activities like yoga and guided meditation classes — in North America and Europe through March 27.
• Outdoor Voices - closing stores through March 27.
• REI closing all 162 stores in the US beginning through March 27.
• Under Armour closing physical retail operations in North America through March 28.
• Free People closed through end of March.
• Abercrombie & Fitch closed indefinitely.
• Hollister and Gilly Hicks  temporarily shuttered all stores outside of the Asia-Pacific region as part of companywide store closures.
• Everlane closing until March 28 and will compensate its retail team during this period.
• Glossier closed for next two weeks.
• Patagonia closing stores through March 27 and temporarily halting online sales.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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