Macy's will reopen 68 stores Monday in states that have loosened lockdowns as it plans to reopen all 775 stores nationwide in the next six weeks

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Macy's Inc plans to reopen 68 US stores on Monday across five states which have reduced lockdown restrictions. 

The department store chain, America's largest by sales, on Thursday said it expects to have all of its roughly 775 stores reopened in six weeks, if infection rates taper off as projected and state and local governments allow it.

The first batch of stores to reopen, located in Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee, will have reduced hours of 11am to 7pm, along with a set of strict social distancing guidelines aimed at protecting customers and employees. 

There are a total of 71 stores across those five states, according to the Macy's website, but the retailer did not specify which ones would be included in the initial 68 reopenings. 

The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company is among the first major retailers taking steps to get back up and running as weeks of crushing coronavirus closures threaten to put thousands of stores out of business permanently.  

Several states across the United States have announced partial reopenings within the next week. Macy's Inc on Thursday announced it will open the doors of 68 stores in Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee under reduced hours

Macy's said it plans to open all of its 775 stores nationwide in the next six weeks (file photo)

About a quarter of the stores reopening next week are located in some of the 49 malls and outlet centers that Simon Property Group Inc, the country's largest mall operator, is planning to reopen this weekend.  

The next batch of roughly 50 stores is scheduled to reopen on May 11, the company said.

Macy's Chief Executive Jeff Gennette first disclosed the reopening plan to the Wall Street Journal, saying he expects the stores that come back first to do less than a fifth of their normal sales volume early on.  

'We don't know how consumers will respond,' Gennette said. 

The CEO warned that the shopping experience will be very different from what it was before, as many customers remain wary about the virus.  

For instance, the number of fitting rooms offered to shoppers at one time will be greatly reduced, with each one sanitized frequently. 

'We're not sure customers will want to use fitting rooms,' Gennette said. 'We think they will buy, try on at home and return what they don't want.' 

Items that are tried on in the store will be held for 24 hours before being put back on the sales floor, with an identical hold applied to returned good.  

Macy's included this timeline of projected reopenings in a presentation to investors - showing that it intends to have all stores up and running by mid-June

Macy's flagship store in New York City is seen packed with Black Friday shoppers in November

Shares of Macy's, the largest US department store operator by sales, were down roughly down roughly 6.5 percent in afternoon trading

Plexiglas will be installed at each cash register to separate check-out clerks and customers, with keypads wiped down after every use.

Signs will also be placed throughout the store to remind customers to stay six feet apart. 

At the beauty counter, 'no touch' consultations will see customers test out products on a paper diagram of a face rather than having a staff member apply them directly.  

Customers will also be required to use hand sanitizer before trying on fine jewelry and watches, with display cases cleaned regularly. 

Some of the new safety procedures are directed specifically at employees. 

Before they clock in to work, employees will be required to complete a wellness checklist that asks then to take their temperature and indicate whether they've experiences any symptoms in the past 24 hours.  

All workers will be required to wear masks during shifts, and those who process inventory, returns and manage fitting rooms will have to wear gloves.  

The safety measures were constructed 'assuming a lower level of traffic', according Macy's Chief Stores Officer Marc Mastronardi.  

The company furloughed the majority of its 123,000 workers last month but has said it does not plan to bring many of them back right away. 

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Macy's hired investment bank Lazard Ltd to explore options for bolstering its finances after the department store operator lost most of its revenue because of its decision to shut down all its stores amid the outbreak, people familiar with the matter said.

Shares of Macy's, which also owns the Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury chains, were down roughly 3.5 percent in early morning trading.

Macy's reopening plan follows moves by other major retailers judged 'non-essential' in the crisis to get business at their physical stores going again, albeit slowly and with restrictions in place.

The majority of reopenings are expected in the South, where restrictions have loosened up the most thus far in the United States. 

Simon Property Group Inc expects to open 49 properties starting Friday based on current state and/or local stay-at-home or closure orders. 

Best Buy Co has said it will open about 200 stores in May to shoppers who make appointments for in-store consultations to buy appliances or electronics.

Tapestry Inc, the parent company of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman luxury brands, also said on Thursday it would start reopening some stores in North America, as it tries to recover from the damage to its sales caused by the lockdowns.

'Keeping stores closed isn't helping the retailers or malls. ... They don't have cash to last too much longer,' Sucharita Kodali, retail analyst at Forrester Research, said of retailers starting to reopen stores for business. 

'Opening them may help to salvage some sales especially so long as they can generate more revenue than their labor costs.'

The most cash-constrained will likely reopen soon, Kodali added, while others 'may have the luxury to hold out longer'.

Earlier this month Coresight Research predicted that 15,000 US stores will permanently close this year, setting a new record and nearly doubling its earlier forecast of 8,000 store closings. 

'Retail has hung a closed sign on the door literally and metaphorically,' Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said.  

 'This is the most catastrophic crisis that retail has faced — worse than the financial crisis in 2008, worse than 9/11. Almost overnight, the retail economy shifted from being about things people want to things that they need.'

Dr Anthony Fauci warns states against moving too fast to reopen as White House guidelines expire and most move ahead with plans to relax lockdown restrictions

America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has warned states against moving too fast as more than two dozen move ahead with plans to relax coronavirus restrictions on business and social life. 

With White House guidelines for social distancing expiring on Thursday, states have been grappling with when and how to revive their economies while keeping residents safe with stay-at-home and social-distancing policies. 

The states that have, or are about to reopen, have put plans in place despite the safeguards the White House had recommended, including 14-day declines in infection rates and expanded virus testing. 

Dr Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a White House task force member, warned those states that are reopening that they could be tempting a rebound by opening too soon. 

He did not mention specific states. 

America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has warned states against moving too fast as more than two dozen move ahead with plans to relax coronavirus restrictions on business and social life

'You can't just leap over things to a situation where you're really tempting (the virus) to rebound. That's the thing I get concerned about. I hope they don't do that,' he told NBC's Today on Thursday.

He doubled down on recommendations issued by the White House that states should show a 14-day decline in new infections and have contact tracing measures in place to identify any future spikes. 

He said if those measures were in place, he was 'cautiously optimistic' about states reopening. 

'The guidelines are very explicit and very clear. You have to have the core principles of the guidelines (in place),' Dr Fauci said.  

The sense of urgency with which states were looking to reopen was highlighted on Thursday by Labor Department data showing that 3.839 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 25.  

It lifted the number of people who have sought unemployment benefits through the pandemic to more than 30 million, which represents roughly 18.4% of the working age population. 

The degree to which states are reopening varies widely across the country. 

In California, six San Francisco Bay Area counties have said they will allow construction, real estate and some outdoor businesses like nurseries, landscapers and gardeners, to reopen from Monday. 

California's Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce the closure of all beaches and parks in the state after crowds jammed beaches last weekend. 

Meanwhile, Florida on Wednesday became the latest state, and one of the largest, to announce steps to ease restrictions that crippled business activity. 

'There is a light at the end of the tunnel,' Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said as he unveiled his phase-one plan to start on Monday to relax mandatory workplace closures and stay-at-home orders imposed four weeks ago.

Earlier in the week his counterpart in Texas, Greg Abbott, announced a similar economic reopening strategy due to take effect this Friday.  

Michigan will allow the state's construction industry to return to work on May 7. 

Macy's Inc announced plans to reopen 68 stores on Monday in states that have loosened coronavirus lockdowns. It expects to have all of its roughly 775 stores reopened in six weeks, if infection rates taper off as projected and state and local governments allow it. 

It comes as coronavirus cases continued to climb throughout the country. 

Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio and Pennsylvania reported record deaths on Wednesday and the US death toll topped 61,000 with well over one million confirmed infections.