John Lewis has now adopted a new ‘test and learn” mantra as they seek to map out plans to safely reopen their department stores. The phased plan has a ‘minimum of three stages’ states Andrew Murphy, Operations Chief. An individual plan has been devised for each of its fifty stores to allow for social distancing.
The chain was poised and ready to start opening some stores this month before the Government suggested that June 1 as the earliest date for non-essential stores to wake up from hibernation.
The move was deliberate as it will allow the retailer, at least in principle, to see what works and what does not depending on the size of the building, which adheres to the ‘test and learn’ mantra, which they created.
“Department stores are much more complex typically than a supermarket, which tends to be repeating a few processes over and over and over again. With department stores … the customer will only see the opening of the front door of the John Lewis on Oxford Street, the lights are on and partners are there to serve, and think ‘tick, job done’. For us it’s a vastly more complicated undertaking than that,” – Andrew Murphy, Operations Chief
