Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said the retailer’s abrupt shift to curbside pickup in March has been a  “remarkable success,” helping the company retain 70 percent of its sales. Online sales have climbed 250 percent in that time, with the balance split between curbside pickup orders and orders shipped to homes, she added.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. launched curbside pickup at its BuyBuyBaby stores on April 1. “In the first full week alone, we completed more than 11,000 curbside orders,” said Mark Tritton, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. president and CEO. Net sales on the digital side have grown  more than 90 percent to date for the month of April year over year, he added.

To accommodate increased demand, other companies are converting closed stores into online fulfillment centers. Whole Foods has converted stores in Baltimore, New York City and San Francisco into processing centers for online orders and local deliveries. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s liquor agency will open 100 shuttered state-owned liquor stores to help process online orders. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. has converted 25 percent of its Bed Bath & Beyond and BuyBuyBaby stores in the U.S. and Canada into regional fulfillment centers. The move allows the retailer to assign online orders locally and deliver quickly.

Some small businesses are staying open and serving local communities by adding essential merchandise. In Charlotte, local bars and restaurants are converting into miniature grocery stores where customers can shop by appointment.

Other retailers are turning to virtual events to keep customers’ attention. Book stores are streaming interviews with authors online, and toy stores are hosting virtual birthday parties. Chicago supermarket chain Mariano’s, a division of Kroger, introduced its own online platform to host cooking classes, wine tastings and mixology sessions with local tastemakers. Meanwhile, more than 170,000 customers have signed on for Lululemon’s virtual yoga classes. Nike boosted its online sales by 30 percent in China after launching a new workout app there, and the company plans to launch a similar app in the U.S. soon.

To prevent vandalism, retailers in big cities have boarded up their closed high-street stores. Retailers like Disney Store, Jimmy Choo and MCM put plywood over the windows of their stores in Chicago’s tony Michigan Avenue shopping district. And in New York City’s SoHo, Celine, Chanel and Fendi have boarded up their windows. Some local leaders are critical of the move. “It sends the wrong message for what we should be doing right now,” Meatpacking District Business Improvement District Executive Director Jeffrey LeFrancois told Gothamist. “While technically it’s not illegal to board up your storefront, it's definitely an uncomfortable message.”

Starbucks, which is already reopening stores in China, where the pandemic first struck, also plans to reopen its U.S. stores. A “significant number” of the company’s 9,000 U.S. stores will reopen in May, the company said in a memo to employees. Starbucks plans to “gradually expand” operations on a store-by-store basis by using a "monitor and adapt" approach in consultation with local authorities and in line with customer sentiment. The service format will vary among mobile orders, drive-thru, and pick-up service. About 60 percent of Starbucks’ U.S. stores include drive-thru windows. 

Some grocery stores are offering reservations in order to ease congestion at the physical stores. OpenTable, the restaurant reservations app, is partnering with supermarkets to let shoppers reserve specific times to shop or to join stores’ online wait lists, allowing them to wait safely in the cars until notified they can enter the stores. For select stores, St. Louis-based Schnucks updates its website once a minute to indicate the number of shoppers inside and lists how many open slots are available for customers to enter. Ohio-based Buehler’s is using its website to help customers find a “Best Time to Shop” to each store.

Department store chains JCPenny and Neiman Marcus have missed debt payments, leading to speculation they may seek bankruptcy protection to restructure their businesses. And discount department store operator Stage Stores asked vendors for more time to pay bills and other concessions as it seeks to avoid a bankruptcy filing.