More Americans Went Shopping After Lockdown Was Lifted
Despite the huge numbers of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the country, more Americans immediately went shopping and diners returned to restaurants when lockdowns were lifted last month.
After a three-month closure of different businesses in the country like shopping malls and restaurants, it is no longer a surprise that Americans are very eager to visit these establishments when the lockdown was lifted in June despite the swelling number of COVID-19 infections in the country.
More than 30 million Americans remained unemployed. Now, there is another threat of business closures in the country as almost all states increased the number of coronavirus cases.
For Mandy Arnold, who owns the Left Bank Restaurant and Bar with her husband in York, Pennsylvania, she said they are not going to malls to buy the things they want, but only to buy what they need.
Their restaurant's revenue was negatively impacted by COVID-19. Even though their restaurants relied on take-out services, their sales have dropped to 80 percent during the lockdown.
They cannot reach their normal revenue even though their restaurant opened last week because of the stricter policy that was set to them.
Camilla Yanushevsky, an equity analyst at CFRA Research, said retail sales increased by 7.5 percent in June when the lockdown was lifted, according to a published article in NBC News. This only means that Americans buy more when the lockdown was lifted.
The increase in retail sales has surpassed the prediction of economists and analysts. However, Yanushevsky said the road to recovery is still far as the resurgence of COVID-19 poses a threat, which means another possible business closure.
During the lockdown, many people work from home and throw themselves into hobbies like cooking, baking, gardening, and jogging.
The trend during lockdowns led to an increase in sales of furniture, appliance, home-and-garden, and sporting goods retailers. An example of this was the sales increase in furniture stores, where it has increased to 32.5 percent in June compared to their sales in May.
The clothing store sales have also jumped by 105.1 percent in June. There was a big demand for clothing products when the lockdown was lifted. However, despite the increase in clothing sales, the apparel product was still affected or down by 23.2 percent compared to their sales last year.
Will Bauer, the owner of ROYCE New York, said retail is badly hurt by the global pandemic and this will accelerate during the second lockdown. Even though his venture in online business has grown, for him, it's not nearly enough to fill the gap.
In a previous article of Latin Post, a study revealed that Americans spend more after they received their stimulus or federal unemployment benefits. Instead of cutting down their expenses due to a limited budget, their expenses have increased to 10 percent.
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