Stores allow food samples and product returns again. Is it safe during the pandemic?
Two months ago, consumers were wondering if they should go to the grocery store and how not to be a jerk while doing so.
Now, as the U.S. enters its fourth month of the coronavirus pandemic, shoppers seem to be retail-happy. A “pent-up demand” and urge for “revenge shopping” drove sales up more than 17% in May, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Retailers — notably grocery chains — have taken notice.
Some are beginning to roll back COVID-19 restrictions that put an end to free samples and product returns in March and April. Others are bringing back normal store hours. But how soon is too soon?
Here’s what stores are doing
Free samples are returning to Costco — albeit not in their regular form, McClatchy News reported.
“We’re going to start doing some things in mid-June on a slow rollout basis in sampling,” chief financial officer Richard Galanti said during a quarterly earnings report. “I can’t tell you any more, but needless to say it’s not going to be where you go and just pick up an open sample with your fingers.”
Its competitors at BJ’s Wholesale Club and Sam’s Club, however, haven’t followed suit. Both warehouse clubs previously suspended in-store sampling and have not announced plans to bring it back, according to their websites.
Crossmark, the company that provides “food demonstrators” to Sam’s Club, “has continued to post open positions on job and recruiting site Glassdoor,” The Dallas News reported in May. But a spokeswoman for Sam’s Club told the newspaper it hasn’t made a decision about bringing the samples back.
Market Street, a grocery store chain in Texas, is piloting free samples with new “packaging and procedures,” according to The Dallas News.
A slew of retailers and grocery store chains also suspended product returns to reduce contact with the virus. But a number have since brought it back.
Target, CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond and Family Dollar have all lifted restrictions on their return policies, according to The Krazy Koupon Lady, a website run by moms that keeps track of deals at big box retailers.
Other stores such as Walmart and Costco are limiting returns on specific items and directing shoppers to complete returns online, USA Today reported.
Kroger’s has also announced its stores in select states will return to normal operating hours, Fox News reported.
They include Virginia and West Virginia as well as some locations in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, according to the media outlet.
Here’s what data suggests
Some states began peeling back restrictions on businesses and gatherings as early as April. Others have taken a gradual approach with phased reopenings.
But according to an Associated Press report, the openings have coincided with a rise in coronavirus cases for nearly half of all U.S. states.
Experts have said it’s unlikely cities and states will revert to the lockdowns that shuttered businesses earlier this year even as case numbers climb, McClatchy News reported. And Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said he doesn’t expect a return to normalcy for at least another year, according to Forbes.
What does that mean for shoppers navigating a COVID-19 world and the retailers trying to keep up?
S&P Global predicts they’ll see an “an influx of consumers eager to re-engage in daily activities with the necessary coronavirus-protection measures.”
More than half of shoppers surveyed by the market research arm of S&P Global said they “plan to start shopping at retail stores as soon as state and local restrictions ease — but are wary of doing so too soon.”
In North and South Carolina, for example, cell phone data charting foot traffic has shown both regions have experienced a steady increase in people venturing out to businesses, McClatchy News reported.
The data mostly coincides with when both states started reopening in May. But in South Carolina, foot traffic “is nearing — and in some cases surpassing — pre-lockdown levels,” according to McClatchy.
Nationwide data reflects a similar pattern.
According to an analysis by Morning Consult charting the rise and fall of consumer confidence in all 50 states from Jan. 1 to June 15, confidence took a steep tumble in early to mid-April.
But “most states experienced a rebound in confidence early June,” Morning Consult reported.
Still, health experts urge caution.
Health policies stores put in place early in the pandemic are “good practices for preventing both COVID-19 and future pandemics,” Brandon Brown, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Riverside, told CNN. “We should keep simple prevention measures such as these in place as long as possible as we move towards reopening the economy to ensure a new wave of infections does not force us to again shelter in place.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 3:26 PM.
