The Weekly - May 12, 2020 - 13

Resources and Education
Bob Phibbs

at Walmart or a big box. Use this
time and do your due diligence.
Know how your store can react
to change before you open again.
Then get your team on board and
role-play with them so they're not
leaning on your customers and
have people asking them things
they're not prepared for.

The Prescription for
Retail Recovery
Bob Phibbs, aka The Retail Doctor, has practical advice for retailers
looking to reopen-and he will kick off The Weekly Chat webinar
series this Thursday, May 14. By Doug Schnitzspahn

CO U R T E SY B O B P H I B B S

DRAWING ON 30 YEARS OF RETAIL

work in the trenches, Bob Phibbs
is the founder and CEO of The
Retail Doctor, a retail consultancy
based in New York that specializes in brick-and-mortar retail
solutions. Since 1994, he has been
working with big-name brands including Lego, Yamaha, and Sports
Chalet, as well as small shops.
He will bring his knowledge to
the Outdoor Retailer community
in the first of The Weekly Chat
webinars, launching this Thurs-

day, May 14, 4 p.m. EST/1 p.m.
PST, and he took the time to give
us insight on shops navigating the
COVID-19 crisis now.
What's the most important
thing for retailers, or any
business, to keep in mind
right now?
If the business is still closed, do
not waste this time. The reality is,
when you reopen, you're going to
be closer to what you would have
been like when you first started

your store. So your KPIs are going
to be just wrong. If you were used
to doing $7,000 a day, you better
be happy with $700 a day and realize that it's going to take awhile.
We've been through a trauma as
a nation-as a world for God's
sake-and you're going to have to
care for your customers, not wait
on them. The concern is you are
not selling, just fulfilling. That's
a real problem because most of
your retailers carry premium
versions of things they could buy

So what's one thing businesses are not doing right
now that they should be?
They have to face the realities of
things like selling with a mask on
and asking people to use sanitizer before and after they try on
clothes or footwear. I don't think
people are really realizing what
operational problems that's going
to bring and how the consumer is
easily spooked. Messy is going to
look unclean. They're not really
looking at the optics of the store
yet or the clues customers are
going to look for. Macy's is saying when people try on clothes,
those clothes aren't going to be
put back out for at least 24 hours.
Just remember, you have to build
confidence in a new way.
The next two weeks are going
to be crucial. Whether you believe
this is the end of days or not, you
don't want to end up taking these
measures lightly because-God forbid-if one of your employees tests
positive for COVID-19, public health
is going to close [your store] for two
or three weeks. Do you want to be
the poster child for somebody who
didn't do it right? You're modeling
for everyone. And remember, 86%
of Americans recently said they support social distancing and mask use.
It might be a little inconvenient, but
have fun with it. You need to take
the precautions, but don't want to
make your store feel like a hospital.

OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2020 / THE WEEKLY 13
The Weekly - May 12, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Weekly - May 12, 2020
