Pundits keep talking about how the far side of this pandemic will bring us a new world, far different from what it is today. I try to not get caught up in the current, as it may be just a wrinkle in a creek, of no particular meaning, rather than the Gulf Stream, the existence of which guarantees Europe is mostly habitable.
But it’s difficult to not be impressed by the changes our major retailers are taking in their stores, and begin to wonder how our unpredictable human psyches may react, even in the face of determined consumer training regimens:
Across the country, stores are reopening to a changed reality. Retailers that have spent years trying to get customers to linger, in hopes they’ll buy more than they need, are reimagining their stores for a grab-and-go future filled with deliberate purchases. Gone, they say, are the days of trying on makeup or playing with toys in the aisles. The focus now is on making shopping faster, easier and safer to accommodate long-term shifts in consumer expectations and habits.
Apple is 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, while the Gap is closing off bathrooms and fitting rooms. Cosmetics giant Sephora won’t allow shoppers to test products anymore. Others are quarantining returns for as long as 72 hours before putting merchandise back on shelves.
American Eagle Outfitters, meanwhile, is reimagining every part of the shopping experience. It has invested in curbside pickup and infrared machines that measure customers’ temperatures as they walk by. 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. Clothes are even folded differently, to encourage hands-off browsing. The new protocols, which already have been rolled out at 435, or nearly half, of its U.S. stores, offer a glimpse of how even the most innocuous interactions might be tempered.
In and out in a hurry as a store policy? By god, man, that’s not American!
Nearing the end … with how many to follow?
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the shopping culture? I, personally, have no understanding of the mindset that thinks life is not complete without a weekly visit to the local mall, a slow saunter with bags over the shoulders and maybe even a sly goal for spending so much money during the visit. It’s not that crowds bug me, as I’m generally large enough that I find crowds amusing, not upsetting, unlike my Arts Editor. But it’s the waste of time and the generally frivolous nature of the endeavour which annoys me.
I think I take myself too seriously at times.
On the other hand, many malls were dying in the last few years as the Internet store fronts – we all know their names – had been taking over from brick retail stores. Perhaps that little stream of culture had finally worn away the sand bar that created it and it was going away.
But I still have to wonder – are we still going to be a roaring consumeristic society once we’re over the bridge to the other side of the pandemic stream? Will Amazon and its brethren continue to nourish that need to own too much stuff?
I can’t say. Neither my Arts Editor nor myself are particularly big on buying stuff, and the crisis has not had much impact on us – we’ve been fortunate that way. I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out.
