Shopping in era of pandemic
As stores begin to reopen, global retailers share their plans and fears
When department stores reopen their doors, a familiar whoosh will still greet customers at the entrance: the sudden gust of air-conditioning, the gleam of polished marble floors, the sensation of not really knowing where to start.
But beyond the doors, new and unfamiliar sights await: hand-sanitiser dispensers scattered on every surface, employees smizing through their face masks, signs displaying checklists of “what we’re doing to keep you safe.”
When Saks Fifth Avenue reopened in Houston, the store stamped a trail of warnings on its white tile floors, in blocky black text, asking shoppers to “please maintain social distancing of at least six feet from others.”
This is department-store shopping during a pandemic.
After months of lockdown, the world of retail is reawakening. Stay-at-home orders are beginning to lift, even as coronavirus-related deaths mount. And in those places, department stores — when not preparing to file for bankruptcy — have been among the first to come back, rolling out detailed safety plans.
Saks Fifth Avenue began unlocking its doors in Texas last Friday and said it aims to open a few Ohio and Florida stores this week. Galeries Lafayette began to reopen itsstoresinFranceonMonday.Nordstrom said that by early this week, the company plans to have 32 stores open — a combination of full-line stores and Nordstrom Rack locations in South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Selfridges and Harrods are also expected to reopen in the coming weeks.
MORE SPACE
So far their plans are similar: Employees will wear face masks and submit to health screenings; some store layouts will be reconfigured to create more space and promote one-way traffic flows; customer capacity will be limited; stores will be cleaned more often; hours will be reduced; hand sanitiser will be liberally available; instore events or any services requiring close contact (beauty tutorials, bra fittings) will be suspended or adapted.
There are also a few differences: At Nordstrom all employees will wear gloves, for example; at Saks they will not. Yet even with these plans announced, or soon-to-be announced, none of the retailers know how they’ll be received.
“We have this idea of what it’s going to look like when we open the doors,” said Jamie Nordstrom, the company’s president of stores. “We’ll be wrong about half of it.”
Despite years of financial turmoil, the purpose of department stores has largely remained unchanged. They are still onestop shops for a sprawling catalogue of goods; they are still home to Santa Claus photo ops and panic buying before the holidays; they still exist in the imagination as settings for movie makeovers and dressing-room montages.
Many people are hungry to have this kind of shopping experience again. But many are also feeling “psychologically vulnerable,” said Michael R. Solomon, a consumer behaviour consultant. “Obviously it’s going to be a downer,” he said. “Nobody wants to be out there wearing a mask, even if it’s from Gucci.”
Consumers may turn to shopping, as they have in the past, to deal with the emotional stress of this moment. Yet how can they escape that stress when they’re surrounded by reminders of it?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
“The most basic thing people will be looking for is health and well-being: Am I going to be safe?” said Mary Portas, a retail consultant and broadcaster. “That said, the fact people want to come to that space means they are going to buy. They have made the effort. They have intention.”
Like upscale hotels and restaurants, high-end department stores have always tried to hide their maintenance efforts from customers, lest a stray floor buffer dim the lustre of luxury. Not anymore.
For pandemic-era retailers, the more obvious signs of cleaning, the better. One commercial cleaning company, Enviro-Master, has even begun offering clients certificates to hang in their windows proving they received a “virus vaporiser” service.
Visibility offers reassurance, and wary shoppers need reassurance. That starts at the entrance to their stores.
“It’s important that the measures implemented are visible and become rituals,” said Andrew Keith, the president
of Lane Crawford, the high-end department store chain in Hong Kong and China (where its locations, bar one in a Beijing mall, remained open throughout the coronavirus outbreak).
CULTURAL FIT
Keith said that his store’s employees, like most others, must wear masks and have their temperatures checked when they arrive. So must Lane Crawford customers, Portas said. “I can’t see somewhere like Britain having temperature checks on every entry and exit point for customers,” she said. “It doesn’t feel like a cultural fit. What feels reassuring in Asia might feel off-putting here, when buying a new piece of fashion. It is still about selling a dream, after all, even if this is the new retail reality.”
MJ Munsell, a retail designer and the chief creative officer at MG2, an architecture firm in Seattle, offered a number of ways retailers can manufacture warm environments upon entry. They could have associates show personality with customised protective gear; build elaborate and delightful displays of merchandise; diffuse memory-evoking fragrances throughout the store; or play high-quality music to boost energy, particularly when there are fewer shoppers around.
The beating heart of a department store is the beauty counter — typically on the first floor, near a busy entrance, staffed with eager and eagle-eyed representatives from each brand.
Makeovers and smoky-eye tutorials happen here. A lot of money is spent. But without skin-to-skin contact, the experience of testing and purchasing products will change dramatically.
Virtual try-ons — technology already used by Sephora and Ulta, among others — could become standard. Employees will need to find new ways of demonstrating how to use products; they may still be able to put eye make-up on a customer, but lipstick and bronzer can’t be applied behind a face mask.
DINE AND DASH
Before the pandemic, retailers were increasingly entering the hospitality business. But for now, department-store dining options — from coffee shops to cocktail bars — in cities like London and New York are shuttered. When they do reopen, most will adhere to the local directives are in place for the hospitality industry, from double spacing between tables and online rather than physical menus.
“It’s certainly going to look different for some period of time,” Nordstrom said.
We have this idea of what it’s going to look like when we open the doors. We’ll be wrong about half of it.”
Jamie Nordstrom| Nordstrom president
The most basic thing people will be looking for is health. That said, the fact people want to come to that space means they are going to buy.”
Mary Portas | Retail consultant and broadcaster