How Retail Spaces Can Continue Social Distancing Post-COVID

As COVID-19 took hold and varying levels of quarantine implemented state by state, retail businesses that hadn’t considered alternative shopping options such as curbside pick-up quickly adapted. According to CNBC, the number of orders placed online and picked up at stores by customers increased 208% between April 1 and April 20 compared with the previous year. Although economies are slowly beginning to open, it looks as though social distancing is here to stay for a while. The question for retailers is, how can companies maintain that trend, and what are the design possibilities that may help?

To answer those questions, Harrison French & Associates published a study examining the best courses of action for responsibly distanced shopping (RDS) and how convenience stores, restaurants, and other retail stores can use these methods to provide a safe experience for their customers.

The report defines three primary RDS methods: in-store pickup, curbside, and delivery. All begin with a mobile or online order. Pickup occurs at a designated storage area where customers can go find their items, while curbside involves employees putting ordered products in customer vehicles in a specially chosen parking area. Delivery requires no other action on the part of the customer than the order itself.

Although convenience stores have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 retail response, having been deemed essential businesses since the start of the pandemic, no one method of RDS has taken hold. This may be due in part to a lack of space; grocery stores and other large retailers often have access to generous square footage that can be devoted to storage and parking, while convenience stores do not.

“The spatial constraints of the convenience store site, particularly when a retail fuel element is provided, make the pickup, curbside, and delivery solution challenging, but not impossible,” HFA says.

For pickup, convenience stores would require designated checkout “lanes” for customers with mobile orders. Those customers could also have the option to scan items using their phones and check them out digitally. There would also be a separate entrance/exit for picking up orders. Walk-up window service is also suggested.

Curbside options for convenience stores may work better with multiple “drive-thru” windows/spaces along the building, the study says. If the store offers fuel options, pump side service may be preferable.

Although the delivery market has been thriving for some time, using a third-party vendor such as GrubHub or DoorDash may be less profitable for convenience stores than relying on the store’s own personnel.

Unlike convenience stores, restaurants have been utilizing pickup/curbside/delivery services long before COVID-19. Challenges inherent in continuing RDS will depend on whether the restaurant in question is freestanding (an independent, detached building) or inline (a space built adjacent to other tenant storefronts). Many of the solutions—like dedicated assembly and staging spaces—are shared no matter the space.

Harrison French & Associates is an architectural and engineering firm that provides services to retail, commercial and multifamily residential markets.