I was attending an online meeting and one point that I think made a lot of sense.
If your shop is open now, it is because of the government decision to class your business as an essential service. Now, what is an essential retail business when we are dealing with this virus? Go through a list of retail stores, and I am sure different people will produce different lists. The fact is now for many of you that are open, the only reason that you were classed as essential is that your industry bodies made a good case for some service or product to be so classed.
Right now those goods and services should be right out in the front, showing to the world that despite this coronavirus you are providing that essential service and that this service is necessary.
What is very important is that retailers do not abuse this classification. I know that many of you rightly consider that these essential services have low margins and produce little traffic, but right now, these items are what is keeping you open.
Now the next question is, where do we as a country, move from here? In China, the lockdown was 4 to 10 weeks, depending on the area. Based on this we are looking till sometime in May until some of the coronavirus lockdowns is lifted, although one point here is that Australia is going into winter which is our flu season? So my punt is somethings in May but for many, it lasts till June. Old age homes will be in lockdown much longer.
