Stores Try To Stay Relevant During The Coronavirus Shutdown

Long before there was a coronavirus pandemic, brick-and-mortar retailers struggled to get people to walk through their doors instead of shopping online. Now those retailers face an even more herculean task: how to stay on people’s minds – and more importantly their pocketbooks – when many of their store doors are closed. More than 250,000 stores such as Macy’s, Nordstrom and Nike that sell nonessential merchandise have temporarily shuttered since mid-March in response to the pandemic. That’s 60% of overall U.S. retail square footage, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. “Retail has hung a closed sign on the door literally and metaphorically,” Saunders said. “This is the most catastrophic crisis that retail has faced – worse than the financial crisis in 2008, worse than 9/11. Almost overnight, the retail economy shifted from being about things people want to things that they need.” Read more at USA Today.