China Daily Interview with Daniel Langer: American brands, retailers face slow recovery

In an aerial view from a drone, Bloomingdale's at the Walt Whitman shopping mall remains closed due to the coronavirus pandemic on May 17, 2020 in Huntington Station, New York. [Photo/Agencies]

By LIA ZHU in San Francisco | China Daily Global 

Many US brands and retailers have been hit hard by closings mandated by stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures that started in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But even as some are gradually reopening, experts see a slow recovery.

Department stores like J.C. Penney, Kohl's, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and J. Crew have reopened a slew of stores in some states — Florida, Texas, Ohio and Indiana, among others — starting last month, but Penney's and J. Crew are operating in bankruptcy.

At the reopened locations, retailers are using various protective measures, including contactless curbside pickup and checkout, reducing store hours and cleaning high-touch surfaces.

In California, the first state to impose a shelter-in-place order, department stores are still closed, though the state is allowing in-store retail businesses to reopen as of Monday, as long as the relevant county approves it.

Even as most states start to ease restrictions, it isn't known when the retail sector will recover and what retail shopping will look like after the pandemic.

"Similar to the past crises, I expect high-end retail to come back fast, while low-end retail will need a significantly longer period to get back. Particularly, (midprice) brands that are not well positioned will suffer," Daniel Langer, CEO of management consulting firm Équité and a professor of luxury strategy at California's Pepperdine University, told China Daily.

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