Direct

When I’m designing a store, I now specify touchless everything, including door hardware, plumbing fixtures, bathroom accessories, lighting controls, and point-of-sale hardware at minimum. None of these elements are difficult to retrofit. Anything that cannot be touchless must be conducive to sanitation. This means using only contract grade cleanable upholstery and solid surfaces at customer touch points. Eliminate or minimize carpet, drapery, and fabrics like velour and felt. “Contract grade” sounds expensive, but some consumer grade vendors like West Elm now offer moderately priced contract furniture with cleanable upholstery that still feels luxurious.

For store layout, I continue strategies for customer interaction that predated COVID. With private and semi-private meeting areas, customers can safely escape the busy sales floor while the sale staff caters to their needs. I also suggest that clients remove low turnover showcases to provide more open space. There is a tradeoff between lost sales from reduced categories and increased retention of customers who would not otherwise feel safe in a crowded store.

I do not suggest eliminating the lounge, bar, and other creative social environments that are so crucial to the customer experience. A client still wants a comfortable place to sit and have a glass of wine. Space out seating, eliminate self-service amenities, and choose chairs and stools over shared sofas.

Indirect

I coordinate with mechanical and electrical engineers for meaningful technological solutions. These may include high intensity UV treatment and bipolar ionization systems in the ductwork, MERV-13 return air filtration, and increased air circulation rates. I find that these options add less than 15 percent to the cost of new HVAC systems and that several systems may be retrofitted.

My hope is that health-related design strategies will follow the path of environmental design. What were once novel or inconvenient — like electric car chargers or sensor faucets — are now innocuous. The big plastic shields will come down, and we will acclimate to more subtle devices and strategies in the coming year.

The post Why Some COVID-19 Changes in Store Design Are Here to Stay appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

After the cancellation, and the announcement by as many as 22 other gem shows in Tucson that they would be postponing their shows to a late March/early April time frame, the AGTA Board of Directors began in earnest to devise a plan to reschedule AGTA GemFair Tucson to April 13 through 18, 2021. These efforts included surveying past buyers and numerous contacts with exhibiting members, through emails, zoom meetings, and telephone communications, to help gauge the level of expected participation in an April event.

“The decision to cancel our Tucson event for 2021 was clearly one of the most difficult decisions the AGTA Board of Directors has faced,” continued Hucker. “Moving forward, we are all committed to planning a robust show in Tucson in 2022. Additionally, we are currently investigating other opportunities for AGTA and its members to participate in Las Vegas this August as well as other exciting possibilities that we expect to announce very shortly.”

The post AGTA Cancels Tentative Plans for April Tucson Show appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

That’s compared to an average of about 10 percent during the fourth quarter of 2020. However, the negative financial effects of the closings were offset by a “reallocation of consumer spending away from travelling and services towards gifting and discretionary goods,” according to the company.

“The current escalation of COVID-19 creates elevated uncertainty about 2021 financial performance,” Pandora stated.

In releasing preliminary results, the company said: “Based on unaudited numbers, organic growth for Q4 2020 is expected to be around 3-4% concluding the financial year 2020 with organic growth of around -11%. This exceeds both the guidance range of ‘-14% to –17%’ communicated in the Q3 2020 Interim Report as well as the expected improvement of ‘at least 1 percentage point above the high end of the guidance’ communicated on 30 December 2020.”

Pandora plans to release audited results on Feb. 4.

The post Pandora Temporarily Closes 25% of Stores Due to COVID-19 appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

For example, in Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan this week announced “immediate actions to prevent overburdening the state’s healthcare system and to keep more Marylanders from dying.”

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Among the restrictions taking effect at 5 p.m Nov. 20: “Capacity at retail establishments and religious facilities will be reduced to 50%, bringing them into line with indoor dining and personal services businesses, as well as bingo halls, bowling alleys, pool halls, roller and ice skating rinks, fitness centers, and social and fraternal clubs.”

“We are in a war right now, and the virus is winning,” Hogan said. “Now more than ever, I am pleading with the people of our state to stand together a while longer to help us battle this surging virus.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also announced restrictions that take effect Nov. 20.

WBEZ reports: “Retail stores can remain open but with only 25% capacity, while grocery stores and pharmacies can operate at 50% capacity.”

“To stop this spread and preserve some semblance of the holidays, all of us need to do more than just wear our masks now – though masks are mandatory throughout the state,” Pritzker said. “The simple fact is that COVID-19 is spreading so quickly and so widely, and our hospitals are beginning to experience real strain and at the current infection rate they will be overwhelmed. So whenever possible, we need you to stay home.

“I’m hopeful that by limiting our in-person interactions, we will succeed at avoiding a stay at home order like what we had in the spring – when the choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods was even more stark. Tier 3 may allow us to do both. Like in other states like Michigan and California and Washington, it’s our best effort to avoid a stay-at-home order and save lives.”

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the state “will temporarily re-enact a statewide order closing in-person services for all non-essential activities in order to blunt the unprecedented spike of COVID-19 illnesses and to attempt to relieve dramatically escalating strain on hospitals and health care providers across the state.” The restrictions are effective Nov. 16 through Nov. 30.

Notably, the New Mexico governor’s office “announced some big-box retailers such as Hobby Lobby and Ross Dress for Less will not be allowed to conduct sales in person” amid the new restrictions, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The governor’s office explains that “essential businesses – such as grocery stores, pharmacies, shelters, child care facilities, gas stations, infrastructure operations and others – must minimize operations and in-person staffing to the greatest extent possible but may remain open for limited essential in-person activities.”

Washington state’s new rules include one stating that “in-store retail is limited to 25% indoor occupancy and must close any common/congregate non-food-related seating areas,” King 5 News reports.

The post More Retail Restrictions Arise Amid COVID-19 Surge appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

“The coronavirus continues as a shock to America’s small employers,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation. “Small businesses are the backbone of American ingenuity and impact local economies in cities and towns across the country, but responses to recent surveys highlight the fragility of many small business enterprises and the importance of the need for well-tailored economic policy.”

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He added: “Just as a physician checks a patient’s pulse to measure the rhythm and strength of the heartbeat, small business is an important indicator of the comparative health of the local and national economies.”

Kleinhenz’s remarks came in the September issue of NRF’s Monthly Economic Review, which cited a new survey created by the Census Bureau to measure the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses.

The Small Business Pulse Survey, launched on a weekly basis in mid-May, looks at issues such as employment, revenue and supply chain disruptions. In the survey’s first nine weeks, it found pervasive difficulties with business operations and finances, including temporary closings, employment, revenue and cash on hand.

Even though those issues have eased as the economy has begun to reopen, optimism has declined. The survey initially found 30 percent of respondents thought it would take at least six months for their businesses to recover from the pandemic, while 25 percent thought recovery would take only two or three months. In June, the number expecting recovery to take six months rose to 44 percent and only 10 percent thought it could come in two or three months. By the week ending August 15, 48 percent expected recovery would take six months and only 4.1 percent though it might be possible in two or three. Only 8.5 percent said their business had already returned to normal levels.

Kleinhenz also cited the Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which fell 1.8 points to 98.8 as of July, ending two months of improvement after a low of 90.9 in April. While the July number was still about average for the survey’s 46-year history, the number of businesses expecting economic conditions to be better in six months dropped 14 percentage points to 25 percent.

In addition, leading business economists surveyed by the monthly Blue Chip Economic Indicators report cited renewal of the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits that expired at the end of July as the best way to support recovery, but ranked small business assistance as the next-highest priority.

The post Small-Business Owners Growing Increasingly Pessimistic on COVID-19, Says NRF appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

The cuts began on June 30, the jewelry company said in a filing with the state’s labor department. the stated reason was “unforeseeable business circumstances prompted by COVID-19.”

The company had also implemented furloughs effectivee April 1.

A David Yurman spokesperson told WWD that the layoffs affected positions in the marketing, product development, engineering and finance departments.

“These challenging decisions were made in order to ensure a healthy business for the future,” the spokesperson said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what percentage of the company’s workforce the layoffs represented.

The post David Yurman Lays Off 98 Workers in New York appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.

The goal is to protect the health and well-being of customers, associates and partners during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from the NRF.

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“The health and safety of associates and customers is retailers’ number one priority and wearing a face covering or mask is scientifically proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” NRF said in the statement. “NRF applauds the leadership of companies like Walmart, Starbucks, Best Buy, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Apple, Qurate Retail Group, Costco and others that have implemented nationwide mask mandates.”

The group said it hoped that the recent announcement by Walmart that it would enforce a policy requiring customers to wear a mask to shop in their stores would be a tipping point in this public health debate.

“Workers serving customers should not have to make a critical decision as to whether they should risk exposure to infection or lose their jobs because a minority of people refuse to wear masks in order to help stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus,” NRF stated.

The group added: “Stores are private businesses that can adopt policies permitted by law for the health and safety of their associates and their customers. Shopping in a store is a privilege, not a right. If a customer refuses to adhere to store policies, they are putting employees and other customers at undue risk.”

A recent letter signed by the NRF, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other industry groups emphasized the importance of a national mask standard. It was sent to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and governors across the country.

Meanwhile, the Retail Industry Leaders Association is also seeking mandatory masking in every state to combat the pandemic. The group’s president, Brian Dodge, sent a letter to two leaders of the National Governor’s Association: Chair Lawrence J. Hogan Jr., governor of Maryland, and Vice Chair Andrew M. Cuomo, governor of New York. Dodge wrote that a “patchwork of local mandates” for retailers “made it incredibly difficult to focus on implementing the right safety protocols.”

In a recent INSTORE COVID-19 Impact Survey, 48 percent of jewelers said they require masks in their stores, while 52 percent said they do not.

The post Retailers Should Set Nationwide Mask Policy to Combat COVID-19, Says NRF appeared first on INSTOREMAG.COM.