Number of the Day
Why Retailers Are Boarding Up Stores for Election Week, by the Numbers
Nervous about the prospect of civil unrest during the election, store owners are taking protective measures
$30,000: That’s how much it could cost to buy barricades, upgrade security cameras, and take other steps to prepare a single store for potential unrest on and after Election Day, according to Bloomberg, citing an estimate from the facility management platform ServiceChannel. Major retailers from Tiffany to Nordstrom are taking steps to protect against possible election-related turmoil, in some cases boarding up stores, or preparing to do so quickly, on the nation’s most famous shopping stretches.
The 2020 election has seen unprecedented speculation about protests and even violence. And according to the New York Times, retailers have already endured an estimated $1 billion in losses this year from the nationwide unrest following the killing of George Floyd.
