HOLIDAY 2020
Will the COVID Surge Affect Black Friday?
COVID-19 cases have surged in Los Angeles County, putting the area’s residents and businesses on edge just before Black Friday, the traditional start of the holiday-shopping season.
According to a Nov. 23 statement by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 6,124 new cases were reported in Los Angeles County on Nov. 23 alone. The department said that COVID-19 surged about 200 percent in food facilities, which includes restaurants and grocery stores, and 67 percent at worksites such as retailers, warehouses, offices and factories.
The Department of Public Health focused immediate enforcement efforts on restaurants. As of 10 p.m. Nov. 25, it ordered county restaurants to shut down outdoor dining facilities for a minimum of three weeks and serve diners only through takeout orders.
Many retailers intend to open for business on Black Friday, Nov. 27. The Glendale Galleria, a mall in Glendale, Calif., announced that it would open at 7 a.m. on Black Friday but would be observing stringent protocols to ensure consumer safety. The Beverly Center, a mall on Los Angeles’ Westside, released a statement that it would control the flow of consumer traffic to 25 percent of what was pre-pandemic traffic.
The timing of this recent turn of events could not be worse, said Fraser Ross, founder of the Kitson boutiques in Los Angeles, who said that the winter holidays make up more than a quarter of sales for the year. “Who can survive if you don’t have sales for this?” Ross said. A silver lining of the situation may be that consumers who venture out to shop at physical stores will make purchases, Ross said.
The California Retailers Association urged retailers to work with state and local governments to help slow the spread of COVID-19. It recently released a Safe Shopping educational campaign that urges consumers to shop alone when possible, use curbside delivery and shop online.
