Big Crowds at Nebraska Furniture Mart

Nearly three weeks after reopening its stores in Omaha and Dallas, Nebraska Furniture Mart did the same for its Kansas City-area location over the Memorial Day weekend. If the pent-up demand for home furnishings is an indication, the retail sector could be bouncing back quickly.

The store in Kansas City, Kan.,was packed with shoppers over the holiday weekend, with long lines of vehicles filling the customer pick-up lanes. One customer said “the crowd was twice as large as any we’ve ever seen there—maybe triple. NFM was even selling beers inside.”

Customers returned to a venue with new safety measures intended to minimize the threat of COVID-19 exposure and transmission. The stores have installed Plexiglass barriers at all cashier stations, added hand-sanitizing stations store-wide, and carts are being cleaned after each use. Employees are required to wear masks, and the store has set up a separate check-out process for those customers considered most vulnerable to the illness.

Inside the store, workers will focus on high-touch areas during cleaning sessions that take place every three to four hours, and employees are also tracking customer numbers in the showrooms as they attempt to maintain social-distancing guidelines.