Uneven Rules, Thin Traffic, Tentative Consumers, As Malls Reopen

Humans have survived by honing their threat assessment skills.

A cautious exploration of shopping opportunities is under way, but reports of infections spiking in areas that have reopened, but it will remain tentative and episodic until there is firm evidence that the danger is manageable, which means it could be months, not weeks. JL

Sarah Nassauer and colleagues report in the Wall Street Journal:

Many large retailers expect slower sales at reopened stores and aren’t rushing to open ahead of demand. On full display were the complex social dynamics of mask wearing and a hodgepodge of individual store rules aimed at keeping people healthy. Many retail workers said they felt anxious about coming back to work. “We looked at what it would be like to open in a way that makes sense from a profitability standpoint, assuming a lower level of traffic.”

On Saturday morning Tracie Giarmo drove 30 minutes to Toledo, aiming to escape Michigan’s store closures and take advantage of just reopened Ohio malls.

At the Franklin Park Mall in Toledo about half the stores inside were still closed, including Macy’s, Dillard’s and the Apple Store. The mall’s Pottery Barn closed last year, part of a wider pullback on physical stores as shopping has shifted online.

Ms. Giarmo, a 56-year-old nurse wearing a face mask, had come to the mall to help her daughter and future daughter-in-law register at Macy’s and Pottery Barn for their coming weddings. “Now we aren’t sure what we will do,” she said.

Many U.S. malls were struggling to attract shoppers and keep tenants before the coronavirus pandemic. Most closed in March, deemed nonessential businesses by local governments. Some malls are now reopening, as those regulations are softened, often to smaller crowds and with many stores still shut.

Foot traffic during the first week of May fell an average of 83% compared with last year at a handful of reopened malls in seven states, including Georgia and Texas, according to Placer.ai. The research firm uses cellphone data to gauge consumer foot-traffic and found that more shoppers visited the malls over the course of that week.

“The pace of recovery is picking up speed,” Placer.ai said in a report, but “visits are still a far cry from ‘normal.’”

The Wall Street Journal visited three malls Saturday morning in Ohio, Texas and Georgia. Dozens of shoppers said they were eager to leave their homes and get a taste of normalcy. In some cases, they were making purchases that had been delayed because of store closures, though in lower numbers than a typical Saturday morning.

Also on full display were the complex social dynamics of mask wearing and a hodgepodge of individual store rules aimed at keeping people healthy. Many retail workers said they felt anxious about coming back to work.

At Franklin Park Mall, the food court was open, but all seating was roped off. Abercrombie and Fitch, an apparel retailer, let 25 people inside at the same time. Foot Locker allowed 18 people in at a time. A dozen shoppers waited behind a rope barrier to enter.

The much larger Forever 21 apparel store allowed in 10 people at a time. A store worker at the door asked those waiting in line to put on masks and ensure they covered noses and mouths. A worker at the nearby Skechers shoe store asked customers to use hand sanitizer before shopping.

(Partially) Open for Business

The Franklin Park Mall in Toledo, Ohio, reopened last week. Nearly 60% of the stores remained closed.

What’s open at the Franklin Park Mall

Open store

Closed store

Parking lot

1

3

2

The mall suggests customers maintain a six-foot distance between cars in the parking lot and park in front of the store they plan to visit. Inside the mall, signs remind shoppers to stay six feet apart.

1

Most food-court restaurants are open, but all seating areas are blocked off. Every other bathroom sink is blocked with a sign to maintain social distancing.

2

Many shops that are open limit the number of people allowed inside at one time, leading to lines outside Foot Locker, Forever 21 and other shops.

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57 open stores

70 closed stores

Resturants and fast food

Source: Franklin Park Mall

Dylan Moriarty/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Laurie Clauson, a 48-year-old Toledo resident, shopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods, the only anchor store open Saturday with her son and daughter. The family has been eager to return to the mall to shop for needed summer clothes and shoes, she said. Each carried, but didn’t wear, a face mask.

“We put them on only if the store makes us,” said Ms. Clauson. Dick’s didn’t require face masks to enter, according to posted signs. “We bought them just in case,” said Ms. Clauson.

At Baybrook Mall, in the southeast Houston metro area, lines formed outside some stores that had limited capacity. People streamed in and out of Macy’s and Dillard’s, but about half of the mall’s 200 stores remained closed. Security guards handed out free masks, and about half the people chose not to wear them.

It was the third weekend that malls in Texas could reopen. They were allowed to reopen May 1 at 25% capacity.

Some stores at Baybrook offered only contactless pickup, including Victoria’s Secret, where Rebecca Smith, 54, and her granddaughter Ciara Christler, 14, stopped to grab an online order.

Ms. Smith, a paralegal, said the pair needed to get out of the house but was grateful for the contactless pickup and pleased that the normally-packed mall was thinly populated. “I don’t come here normally; it’s too crowded,” she said.

When major mall owners reported earnings last week, executives said traffic was slowly rising and more tenants planned to reopen, but local laws limiting traffic vary widely by region.

“Traffic picks up by day,” Thomas O’Hern, chief executive of Macerich Co., one of the largest U.S. mall owners, told investors on May 12. “It’s really going to be center by center, region by region.”

Macy’s Inc., Gap Inc. and other apparel chains have announced plans to slowly open hundreds of stores this month after shutting them in March and furloughing most of their staff. The apparel chains are trying to recoup some lost sales that have recently forced companies like J.C. Penney Co. and J.Crew Group Inc. to file for bankruptcy protection. On Friday, the government reported that April retail sales plunged 16.4% from March, including a nearly 90% drop in clothing sales.

Many large retailers expect slower sales at reopened stores and aren’t rushing to open ahead of demand. “We looked at what it would be like to open in a way that makes sense from a profitability standpoint, assuming a lower level of traffic,” Marc Mastronardi, Macy’s chief stores officer, said in April.

Georgia was one of the first states to unlock its malls. In late April Gov. Brian Kemp allowed many nonessential businesses to reopen, as long as they followed safety guidelines.

Atlantic Station, a large outdoor mall set in a mixed-use development of Atlanta’s Midtown, had few customers Saturday compared with before the pandemic. Most of the shopping center’s clothing stores—including Gap, Athleta, H & M, Dillard’s and Express—remained shut.

Sanitation crews, all wearing masks, were cleaning public benches and railings throughout the area. Parking lots that were normally filled had plenty of space. Not all shoppers wore masks.

Jay Shelton, a 43-year-old oncologist from suburban Atlanta, came to Atlantic Station to get his son Simeon, 13, a haircut. The two then walked around a bit to see what was open and what wasn’t.

“Most of it was curiosity,” he said. They decided to get takeout ice cream and head home, Mr. Shelton said. The family still was hunkering down, and buying much of what they needed online, he said.

It was the first open day since mid-March at a candy store in the mall. Staff enforced rules about social distancing and required every customer to wear a mask.

Lurica Jackson, 46 years old, the candy store manager, said she was nervous about being back at work after months of furlough. Getting employees to cover all the shifts was a challenge, she said. One worker declined to come back because she had asthma and another was fearful of traveling on mass transit, Ms. Jackson said.

“I was so nervous about opening today that I called friends in a prayer group, and we said a prayer, but it’s been OK,” she said.

Ms. Jackson had no expectations that business would return to normal soon, she said. When she first came last week to clean her store for reopening, she said the normally crowded Atlantic Station “looked like zombie land.”