Shopping’s no fun if you can’t try on the clothes

Back in business: A worker wearing a protective mask dresses a mannequin at the Urban Emporium store on Dauphin Street in Mobile, Alabama. Many American cities are lifting their stay-at-home order and allowing most businesses to open, subject to sanitation and social-distancing guidelines. — Bloomberg

LOCKDOWNS have devastated retailers and restaurants all around the world. An easing of restrictions won’t be the magic wand that waves their worries away.

Even when it’s possible for consumers to walk freely into their favorite shops and bars, they may be nervous about doing so. That puts the onus on retailers to make their locations as reassuring as possible. There’s a range of things they can do, from installing stations dispensing hand sanitiser with a wave, establishing distance markers to keep shoppers safely away from each other and even altering store layouts to keep patrons from crossing paths. Dressing rooms are likely to remain closed for the foreseeable future.