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The New Normal - Retail Edition

The New Normal: Retail Edition

Feeling Safe as you Shop and providing Safe environments for employees is vital. Here’s a few top tips and before & after layouts to showcase what the ‘new normal’ may look like.

The world as we know it has changed forever, but that doesn’t have to be all bad! San Diego Office Design is here to guide you through the “New Normal” of opening your retail store as we recover from a pandemic.

As a business owner, it’s critical to ensure that customers and employees feel comfortable in your space. Comfort and anxiety levels will differ for everyone so it’s important to address concerns surrounding emotional wellbeing, physical distance, cleanliness procedures, and more.

You may have to deal with changes to your space to reopen your retail store. However, you DON’T have to compromise the brand and culture of your company.

Keep your customers and employees feeling safe and healthy without compromising your design by following these guidelines.

  1. Limit employee and customer interaction
    Keeping your employees healthy is a priority, and a good way to do that is to limit their interactions with the public.   You can limit access by providing barriers between what the customer can touch and what your employees can touch. In our design above, we divided the customers from the employees by adding glass partitions. This way, the customer can see everything that’s in stock without touching products they aren’t purchasing.
  1. Promote Customer to Customer Distance
    In high traffic areas, provide floor marks or freestanding signs showing a 6’ distance between each person.

  1. Keep cleaning supplies available
    Implement an internal cleaning procedure and schedule for your employees. Providing cleaning supplies like Sanitizing Stations at the entrance for your customers should be a priority as well.
  1. Can’t Touch This
    From your doorknob to trash cans and soap dispensers. Re-evaluate everything that your customers and employees touch on a daily basis. And if there is a solution out there, we recommend getting it.
  1. Improve Air Quality
    If your space allows, open the windows and doors to keep fresh airflow circulating. Try to avoid closed environments, if possible. Additionally, you can change your air filters more frequently than recommended and add air-purifying plants to your space to really help clean the air.

    There are some great add-on solutions for UV light cleaning of your HVAC system that don’t require more than a simple update. We can share those options with you if you are interested, as they vary from location to location.

How your Future Shopping experience may look

Your retail store might not need to do everything on this list, but it is important to make small changes right away since this is going to create a big impact on how your employees and visitors feel about being in your space. Encouraging an open discussion about how employees are feeling as they return to work is key. 

The image on the left shows an updated retail space that keeps the Employee on one side of the space and the customer on the other to minimize interaction. The employee only has interactions when there is a transaction on the counter. By adding this glass or plastic partitions that are see-through, space doesn’t seem smaller and the design isn’t compromised. And providing hand sanitizing stations at the entrance is a great way to give your guests additional ways to feel comfortable.


Want more information on the products in this article? Or do you need a little more help implementing safety measures in your business?

Use this special link to schedule your call and use code: RETAIL to book your time with the Design Boss, Tamara Romeo. (a $50 value)


We’d love to hear about your success! Let us know how this list helped you – connect with us on social media!

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