​Opinion: How social distancing can be ‘baked in’ to new store designs

Most of what has now become familiar territory is to be found in supermarkets, where queuing prior to receiving a disinfected trolley is now the usual drill in almost every store that a shopper might care to visit.

The problem with all of this is that it can actually become too familiar. As a large swathe of UK retail prepares to reopen on June 15, there will inevitably be shoppers who begin to treat the precautions on offer with cavalier disregard.

But could things be done differently? Beyond retail, there are arenas where alternatives to ’the norm’ are being trialled – and there are also stores that have opened during the Covid-19 crisis where social distancing elements have been baked into the design template, rather than layered on retrospectively.

On the former, the example of Florence cathedral is one location that deserves a mention. Visits to one of the most famous buildings of the Renaissance have resumed once more and anyone venturing inside is given a lanyard with a beeper attached to it. Venture closer than 2m to anybody else in the Duomo and a loud beep sounds, at which point social distance shaming exerts its power over the wearer.

When compared to the business of shop staff endeavouring to keep customers apart, at risk to themselves and others, this is both an effective and relatively cheap means of making distancing a reality.

Then there are retailers like Primark, which have created graphics that are part and parcel of the store design. The newly opened store in Berlin, in the city’s Gropius Passagen shopping centre, is a case in point.

A window graphic that looks suspiciously permanent reads, auf Deutsch: “Please note: entering the store is only possible with mouth and nose protection”. This really is the ‘new norm’, it’s just that it’s a message that doesn’t seem to be being acted upon that fiercely in the UK currently.

Contactless shopping

Then there is the phenomenon of the drive-thru. In this country, it’s increasingly common for food and beverage operators such as Costa to encourage people to use its ‘stores’ by driving up to a window, having pre-ordered, and collecting their purchase thanks to a remote arm that the retailer has dreamt up. It’s simple and effective.

But the drive-thru is not just about burgers and coffee. Dubai-based home, garden and hardware retailer Ace has just opened what it claims is the UAE’s “first drive-thru retail experience”.

Here, the online shopper collects their shopping by driving into what looks remarkably like a car park. On arrival, customers text a number to say that they have arrived and purchases are brought to their boot.

“The skills of the visual merchandiser may well undergo a major resurgence as a means of keeping shoppers entertained and encouraging loyalty”

This gives an entirely new meaning to ‘contactless’ shopping – although the “experience” part of the equation is questionable – and could bring into play the other element that will be a major consideration for new stores opening in the Covid-19 era: visual merchandising.

As part of the fixed retail scheme of things, external queuing will be one of the more irksome elements in the brave new shopping world and windows look set to come back into their own as a consequence.

When towns and cities really do reopen, the prospect of waiting in line in front of shop windows that genuinely interesting may well mean that the skills of the visual merchandiser will undergo a major resurgence as a means of keeping shoppers entertained and encouraging loyalty.

All of which means that there is a lot more to dealing with coronavirus, both in-store and outside, than some hand gel, free gloves and polite notices.

In the long term, the latter will be ignored, and the example set by some beyond these shores might merit close inspection. Work remains to be done.