Bangkok is a known shopping paradise. There are markets and malls at almost every corner, purveying everything from trendy home-grown labels to desirable designer brands. Unfortunately, Bangkok’s reputation as a shopping haven doesn’t hold much in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shuttered a huge percentage of the retail industry. Only the supermarket sector is in full operation.
When this lockdown will end remains unknown. But Central Pattana or CPN, Thailand’s biggest retail player, is not sitting on its haunches while waiting for the threat to die down. Mulling the possibility of a “new normal,” the company has released pre-emptive measures that may change the way people shop once the lockdown lifts.
“In response to this ‘new normal’ in changing consumer behavior… this master plan is set as a guideline to use for the best interest… of the nation to hereafter set new retail and social norms,” Wallaya Chirativat, CPN’s deputy chief executive officer, said in a press release.
Called Central’s Hygiene and Safety Master Plan, the initiative was designed under five key cores—Extra Screening, Social Distancing, Safety Tracking, Extra Cleaning, and Touchless Experience—and involves 75 different measures.
To summarize, each Central shopping center will limit the number of shoppers it accepts into the mall at a given time. The baseline is set at five square meters per customer, meaning there can only be 5000 individuals shopping at the same time in a 25,000-square-meter mall. Patrons will also need to wear a protective mask while inside a Central shopping center. In addition, the health of every person working in the mall will be tracked. And cashless or e-payment transactions will also be encouraged. These measures will be put in place once the government permits all malls and retails outlets to reopen.