Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Kohl’s and Gap, Inc. are the latest companies to reveal their plans for temporary reopening of shuttered stores. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has begun reopening their stores for the area of North America and EMEA. First reported in mid-March were provisional North American and EMEA closings of the labels of the group, including Abercrombie, Abercrombie Kids and Hollister. These closings were later extended, and the company further announced that it borrowed $210 million under its senior secured asset-based revolving credit facility and withdrew the majority of excess funds from its Rabbi Trust–amounting to approximately $50 million in additional cash–in order to boost liquidity.
The company said its workers would wear masks, practice physical distancing and wash and sanitize their hands regularly in order to obey WHO and CDC safety guidelines, while stores would increase their efforts in sanitation, impose physical distance between customers and have health guards at checkout. The company would also provide 24-hour quarantine returns before putting the clothes back on the shelves. After prolonging the temporary closure of its stores nationwide in late March, Kohl’s said earlier this week that it is reopening stores in line with the Covid-19 schedules and measures for each state and locale, with several stores operating with reduced hours. The first round of reopened stores are located in Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.
In addition to limiting store hours, the company said it is implementing further safety precautions by upholding physical distancing practices in stores, ramping up its cleaning and sanitation practices, and reserving certain shopping hours for consumers who are most at-risk, including those above the age of 60, pregnant customers and those who have underlying health conditions. Kohl’s will also require all employees to wear masks and gloves. On 19 March, the company declared its temporary closure. The organization announced after extending these closures that its $1 trillion revolving loan would be used and spending will be decreased by about $500 million to achieve the pandemic.
