Macy’s still not fully recovered: Sales at open stores fell 21% for at least a year during the 13 weeks ending Oct. 30 compared to the same period last year, Macy’s said Thursday. Retailer’s Big-Bx competitors and Amazon have grown in recent months.
Holidays are the most important part of the year for retailers, and stores have been a challenging year for the industry as they seek to maximize their sales, so industry lobbyists and retailers are urging the elimination of the so-called “essential” “non-essential” epidemic in the future. In advance any shutdown related.
In a call with analysts on Thursday, Messi’s CEO Jeffrey Gannett said the retailer is working with local and state leaders to ensure coronavirus safety measures are in place and urged officials to bridge the gap between necessary and non-essential retailers.
He said, “We do not believe that the position of essential and non-essential should be played loose. We believe that you either have a safe environment or not.” “You should be held accountable for health and safety standards.”
Gannett’s message echoed the strategy taken by retail industry leaders in recent weeks with elected officials. Retail groups say the need for some stores to close is unfair while keeping others open based on what they sell. And it’s a reflection of how the forced closure of parts of the industry, such as clothing stores and malls, has had a negative impact, while lifting others like groceries and home improvement.
Some public health experts are mixed about whether clothing stores and others should close as the epidemic spreads in the United States. The seven-day average of new cases across the country is at an all-time high: 161,165 cases a day, up 27% from last week.
Tara Smith, a public health pathologist at Kent State University, said in an email that it would make sense to close previously unlabelled stores to prevent the spread of the virus “in the ideal world.” But he said the closure would do much harm to the economy and workers at this time, unless there was more federal funding to compensate the scattered workers.
The federal government offered an additional $ 600 a week in unemployment benefits to those who lost their jobs in the epidemic, but those benefits ran out during the summer. Congress has not renewed them.
University of California San Diego epidemiologist Vael al-Delami said non-essential retailers should stop because the epidemic is worse than spring.
David French, senior vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation, said in an interview on Thursday that retailers who establish safety protocols such as masks, social distance and other measures should be allowed to remain open.
He added that “it is important for governors to ensure the health of communities so that they do not shut down the economy again.”
At the present stage, most local and state leaders do not require retailers that they were once appointed as non-essentials to close, retail leaders say. The new restrictions have focused on capacity limits in stores instead.
New Mexico, however, has become a flash point in the new rules around which businesses can stay open.
The government’s Michelle Lujan Grisham and state health officials announced Wednesday that the state needs retailers to limit more than 75 customers or 25% of the maximum business customers by November 30th.
These essential retailers include grocery stores, supermarkets, farmers markets, convenience stores and other businesses that receive more than a third of their income from food, auto toe and bike repair shops, hardware stores, laundromats and others. Retailers that do not meet these requirements are not allowed to enter customers.
Scotty Andrew of CCNN contributed to this article.
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