The drastic decision Glossier made due to coronavirus

The move will undoubtedly eat into Glossier’s profits and growth trajectory, because as Weiss says, the company’s New York flagship store attracts 2,000 persons a day. Suspending retail activity means delaying the opening of Glossier Arizona. All this is coupled with Weiss’ promise that all their staff, also known as “offline editors,” would be compensated throughout the planned two weeks of closure. As she notes, “From a company perspective, by closing our stores, we’ll sacrifice some near-term business goals, but we’re prepared to put public health ahead of our bottom line.”

Shopping may be one of the ways we normally rely on to deal with stress, but with the added challenge of having to maintain social distancing, we can only imagine that diminished foot traffic will become a real challenge for the retail industry. Since Glossier made its announcement, Apple has also said it will close all of its stores outside greater China for the next two weeks (via The New York Times), so we can only think that these two could actually be way ahead of the curve.