Protected with plywood: Retailers board up shops along Mag Mile

Luxury brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo installed protective coverings at their shuttered stores or emptied windows of merchandise as they wait out the crisis

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker with Jimmy Choo and Disney in Magnificent Mile (Credit: Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton via Wikipedia Commons, Google Maps)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker with Jimmy Choo and Disney in Magnificent Mile (Credit: Lt. Col. Bradford Leighton via Wikipedia Commons, Google Maps)

Some shuttered retail stores along or near the Magnificent Mile, including luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton, have boarded up their shops or emptying their windows of merchandise as they wait out the coronavirus pandemic.

Among the stores that are now protected with plywood are the Disney store and MCM Worldwide on Michigan Avenue and luxury shoe brand Jimmy Choo on nearby Oak Street, according to the Tribune. Others, including high-end clothing brands Gucci and Louis Vuitton, no longer have merchandise on display.

The stores took those measures to prevent theft or vandalism, and some have moved merchandise to distribution centers where they can be sent to online shoppers, according to the Tribune.

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The moves come amid the statewide “stay at home” order that took effect over the weekend, which instructs all nonessential businesses to remain closed through April 7. Through Monday, there were 598 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the city.

Beauty retailer Sephora also walled off its Michigan Avenue flagship as part of a “standardized precautions” to protect properties across North America during temporary closures over the next couple of weeks, the paper reported.

A similar scene has played out in New York City, which has seen a rapid increase in the number of people who have tested positive for the virus, and which has enacted similar stay at home measures. Some retailers in trendy neighborhoods of SoHo and Williamsburg, including Sephora and Louis Vuitton have also boarded up their stores.
[Tribune] — Brianna Kelly