The Resilience of Retail Stores amid COVID-19

This paper examines the resilience of retail stores—whether they maintain their store visits—during COVID-19 across jurisdictions with different socioeconomic characteristics. Using cell phone locational data, I adopted an event study design to compare visits to retail stores across counties with different mitigation policies and socioeconomic characteristics. I found a significant decline in-store visits by 16 percent after three rounds of community mitigation strategies, which shows a lack of resilience. Meanwhile, the distribution of resilience was unequal across jurisdictions with different socioeconomic profiles. Policy recommendations are made to support retail businesses and promote inclusive development.