The biggest pandemic to hit the world in hundred years has changed things all across the globe. While shopping was all about entering your favourite store and picking things earlier, now it’s about using mandatory masks, shelves being rearranged, paying bills digitally and thermal checking every shopper’s body temperature – coronavirus has changed the face of the shopping experience, but don’t fret, it may have only made is hassle-free, faster and safer.
As the world gears to open up after the lockdown restrictions are being partially lifted across the globe, malls and shopping centres are opening.
“Everything was so different, if anything, it made the virus feel more real,” the Washington Post quoted Tiara Show, a shopper as saying. The 23-year-old recalled her shopping experience at American Eagle Outfitters last week and said that the clothing company took measures like asking shoppers to use masks as a mandatory act, shelves had been pared down, and rearranged, with jeans in one area, shirts in another – to encourage hands-off browsing.
According to the report, Tiara found out that every fitting room was closed. After paying for her purchase which were shirts, shorts, and earrings, through a plexiglass divider, Show tore the receipt from the printer herself. Moreover, entryway displays once piled high with apparel have become ‘welcome tables’ with bottles of hand sanitizer, disposable masks, and sticky blue mats that clean shoe soles.
Stores across the US has already rolled out new protocols, “From the moment you walk into our store, we want you to see something that’s new,” the Washington Post quoted Andrew McLean, the company’s chief commercial officer as saying by Washington Post.
“The sticky mat, the welcome table — they’re all triggers in the customer’s mind that things are different now,” McLean added. Another measure to now limit the number of people in stores is using a mobile app to notify customers when it’s their turn to shop.
Different shopping companies are following various precautionary measures to make the shopping experience way safer and systematic. As reported by the Washington Post, Apple stores are checking shoppers’ temperatures at the door. Best Buy is asking customers to shop by appointment.
Macy’s and Nordstrom are doing away with beauty consultations and alteration services, meanwhile, the Gap is closing off bathrooms and fitting rooms. On the other hand, cosmetics giant Sephora will not allow shoppers to test products anymore. Others are quarantining returns for as long as US72 hours before putting merchandise back on shelves.
