Malls putting in extra work
Owners taking measures to make things safe for shoppers once they get green light
As retailers across the province open up for business Tuesday, there’s one large, glaring exception: shops in malls.
Ontario premier Doug Ford said Friday that it will still be a while before mall stores are allowed open and acknowledged that puts them at a competitive disadvantage to street-front stores selling the same goods.
“You know, about this crisis and the pandemic, there’s a lot of things that just aren’t fair,” Ford said at his daily COVID-19 briefing. It’s a matter of public safety, Ford said. “In some cases, if we open up the malls … open up Yorkdale, the place would be packed and we just can’t have it,” he said. “Hopefully in Stage 2 or Stage 3, when that time comes, they’ll be able to open the doors.”
Mall owners say they’re working overtime to make things safe for customers.
Yorkdale, for instance, owned by Oxford Properties, is boosting the frequency of cleanings, making hand sanitizer and washing stations widely available, and putting up signs to direct socially distanced pedestrian traffic, a spokesperson said by email.
Some Yorkdale stores with outdoor entrances have already opened for curbside pickup.
Other malls are busy preparing for when they are allowed to open fully.
Cadillac Fairview executive Sal Iacono knows that customers will need to feel safe when they shop. In provinces
where malls are already open, including Manitoba, Iacono insists that they are. Cadillac Fairview runs 19 malls across the country, including Eaton Centre and Sherway Gardens.
“We want customers to know that this will be as safe a shopping experience as they can possibly have,” said Iacono, Cadillac Fairview’s executive vice-president of operations. “We’ve got increased security. We’ve got janitorial services on site during opening hours.”
He doesn’t accept the suggestion that malls are inherently less safe than street-front shops, even though they can attract thousands of shoppers at a time. In fact, Iacono says they’re safer because they’re a more controlled environment, often with wider spaces for shoppers than street-front stores.
“We have a unique opportunity to mitigate some of the risks. We’re less safe than on a narrow sidewalk where it might not even be physically possible to stay six feet apart?” Iacono said.
In Cadillac Fairview malls that have opened in other provinces, Iacono said, company officials are keeping a close eye on foot traffic to ensure there aren’t too many shoppers at once.
“We’ve set a tentative limit of 50 per cent of our normal capacity and so far, in two weeks, we haven’t hit that,” he said.
Part of the reason for that lower foot traffic is that a lot of mall stores aren’t open yet, even if they’re allowed to be, said Diane Brisebois, president of the Retail Council of Canada.
“Probably only about 50 to 60 per cent of stores in malls are actually opening up. Some of it’s staffing issues, some of it’s inventory,” Brisebois said. “If you haven’t had any revenue coming in, it’s tougher to afford new inventory.”
Some retailers — particularly smaller ones — are also deciding it’s not worth opening with lower foot traffic, at least not yet.
“A lot of the malls are anchored by big entertainment or restaurant complexes, and those probably aren’t going to be open for a while yet, so that’s going to reduce foot traffic,” she said.
Retail consultant Lisa Hutcheson said bricks and mortar retailers — inside malls or out — are going to struggle for a while with nervous customers.
“People are going to have more trepidation about shopping in general, particularly for discretionary stuff. They’re asking themselves, ‘Do I really need that new shirt or dress right now?’” said Hutcheson, managing partner at retail consultancy J.C. Williams Group.
“The whole idea that people are going to come out in droves, I just don’t think it’s accurate,” she said.