(Bloomberg) -- Coach and Kate Spade will reopen hundreds of their handbag and apparel boutiques as luxury brands slowly return to business after going dark for two months.
Parent company Tapestry Inc., which also owns the shoe label Stuart Weitzman, said Thursday that it will provide curbside and pickup services at 300 North America shops -- nearly half its store network in the region -- by the end of this week. The stores had been closed since mid-March, when the coronavirus pandemic prompted shutdown measures.
Tapestry is also opening more than 120 stores with reduced hours and customer traffic in Europe, Japan, Australia and Malaysia. The retailer's 400 locations in China and South Korea, meanwhile, are operating normally. About half of the company's shops have reopened in some capacity worldwide.
Tapestry cut 2,100 part-time staff in April and hasn't furloughed employees, as most retailers have. The company said last month it would extend pay and benefits to workers through May 30 but would stop paychecks for associates if stores weren't able to reopen by then.
U.S. retailers are slowly reopening stores as states ease lockdown measures meant to prevent the spread of Covid-19. The National Retail Federation predicts the recovery will come in “fits and starts” as consumers are “likely to tiptoe back in, rather than making an immediate return to the lives they experienced before.”
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