Safety Precautions to Guard Delayed Las Vegas, Atlanta Markets
International Market Centers has announced that the Las Vegas and Atlanta Markets originally scheduled to occur this July will be postponed — but only into August. Atlanta Market will now be held August 13 – 18, and Las Vegas Market will now be held August 30 – September 3, which overlaps with the National Hardware Show, which is now scheduled for September 1-3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The decision follows a survey of buyers and vendors who have attended its shows in years past, more than 180,000 retailers and designers and nearly 6,000 manufacturers and sales agencies across the gift, home furnishings and apparel industries. The survey found that retailers will need to purchase new inventory within weeks after re-opening their stores, with half saying that they’ll need new inventory within three or four weeks of re-opening and more than three quarters saying that they’ll need new inventory within nine or 10 weeks of re-opening. “There isn’t a glut of inventory. Many retailers canceled orders. You have people with inventory but no pipeline for future inventory,” said Bob Maricich, IMC’s Chief Executive Officer. “There’s no question that as people’s business ramps up, they’ll need to reorder relatively quickly.”
Buyers who responded to the survey said that they’re generally in favor of doing their buying in person at a market, although they do have concerns about safety that IMC is addressing in its plans to open the markets. “We will spare no expense. It’s going to extend to ensuring that our partners in conducting a market are complying too,” Maricich said. “It’s shared pain for all of us. Retailers have lost money over this. There’s a new normal coming out of all this, but between now and then there’s a new abnormal…. There’s going to be a considerable cost, but if we didn’t do this, we might as well not have a market.”
IMC’s COVID-19 response and remediation task force is developing thorough and detailed protocols for market production designed to ensure the health and safety of all those attending market. All back-to-business operating plans are being vetted to verify efficacy and identify best practices by Dr. Carlos del Rio, the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health; and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine. Safety procedures are expected to include: the required use of personal protective equipment (PPE), temperature monitoring, social distancing, occupancy control, hand sanitizing/ cleansing and significantly enhanced housekeeping protocols for cleaning and disinfecting market facilities. IMC is also collaborating with hotels and food and beverage partners to confirm and communicate special protocols; planning new pre-registration requirements to enable contactless market entry; and preparing for arrival and departure strategies to facilitate social distancing. Comprehensive details around onsite health and safety protocols will be promoted in advance of each market and will be updated regularly at www.togethersafely.com.
