April 3, 2020
Photo by istock.com
Ron Johnson, former J.C. Penney CEO and the design leader behind Apple’s retail locations, isn’t at all optimistic about what’s ahead for retail department stores once the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end.
In fact, the founder of delivery firm Enjoy, told Yahoo Finance, “it will be really difficult to survive.”
As Retail Customer Experience has been reporting since early March, retailers across the U.S. have pretty much shuttered all brick and mortar locations at this point due to the expanding coronavirus that has sequestered most Americans at home.
Johnson, talking with The First Trade, believes it will be hard for “B and C malls” to survive the impact of closing and furloughing staffs.
He said citizens are now focused on buying food and are not at all interested in apparel and that when retailers, such as J.C. Penney and Macy’s, begin determining store re-openings it won’t be all stores.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if many of these department stores and others use this opportunity to massively reduce their footprints to get at a footprint they planned to be at five years from now because they won’t be able to survive,” he told the news outlet.
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Topics: Consumer Behavior, Coronavirus / COVID-19, Retail – Apparel, Retail – Department Stores, Top 100 Retail
Companies: Macy’s, Apple, J.C. Penney