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Macy’s still hasn’t fully recovered: Sales at stores open for at least a year fell 21% in the 13 weeks ending Oct. 30 compared to the same period last year, Macy’s said Thursday . The retailer’s big-box rivals and Amazon have grown in recent months.
The holidays are the most important time of year for retailers, and stores want to maximize sales during what has been a difficult year for the industry. Industry lobbyists and retailers are therefore lobbying to eliminate the “essential” “non-essential” nomenclature before any future shutdowns linked to a pandemic.
During a call with analysts Thursday, Macy’s CEO Jeffrey Gennette said the retailer was working with local and state leaders to ensure coronavirus safety measures were in place and urged officials remove the distinction between essential and non-essential retailers.
“We don’t think the designation of essential and non-essential elements should play in retail. We believe you have a safe environment or not,” he said. “You should be held responsible for health and safety standards.”
Gennette’s message echoed the strategy that retail leaders have adopted with elected officials in recent weeks. Retail groups say it’s unfair to require some stores to close while allowing others to stay open based on what they’re selling. And it reflects how the forced closures have negatively impacted parts of the industry, like clothing stores and malls, while also lifting others like groceries and home improvement.
Some public health experts are divided as to whether clothing stores and others should close as the pandemic worsens in the United States. The seven-day average of new cases nationwide is at an all-time high: 161,165 cases per day, up 27% from last week.
Tara Smith, an epidemiologist at Kent State University College of Public Health, said in an email that it would make sense to shut down stores previously labeled as non-essential to stop the spread of the virus “in an ideal world.” But she said the shutdowns would be too damaging to the economy and workers at this point, unless there is no more federal funding to compensate laid-off workers.
The federal government had paid an additional $ 600 in weekly unemployment benefits to people who lost their jobs during the pandemic, but those benefits expired over the summer. Congress did not renew them.
Wael Al-Delaimy, an epidemiologist at the University of California at San Diego, said non-essential retailers should close because the pandemic is worse than it was in the spring.
David French, senior vice president of government relations at the National Retail Federation, said in an interview Thursday that retailers that establish safety protocols such as the requirement for masks, social distancing and other measures should be allowed to stay open.
He added that it is “important for the health of communities that governors do not cut the economy again”.
For now, most local and state leaders have not forced retailers they once designated as non-essential to shut down, retail executives say. New restrictions have instead focused on capacity limits in stores.
New Mexico, however, has become a flashpoint in new rules around which businesses can stay open.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and state health officials announced Wednesday that the state requires essential retailers to limit capacity to no more than 75 customers inside or 25% of maximum occupancy until November 30.
These essential retailers include grocery stores, supermarkets, farmers markets, convenience stores and other businesses that generate more than a third of their income in food, auto and bike repair stores, hardware stores, laundromats. automatic and others. Retailers who do not meet these requirements are not allowed to have customers inside.
– CNN’s Scottie Andrew contributed to this article.
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