Wanted to send over a quick update from FlynnO’Hara regarding our plans for this coming back-to-school season. As of now, all retail stores and our distribution center remain closed under government mandate. Additionally, for the safety of your school families and the FlynnO'Hara team, we are cancelling all Uniform Measuring events scheduled in May & June. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes your school families; please understand that we are making this decision in the interest of community safety.
In the
meantime, our team is working around the clock to prepare for what will
undoubtedly be a highly modified back-to-school shopping season. We will
be following up with a concrete outline of our plans, as well as
resources to share with your families, by Friday May 15. We
appreciate your patience as we work to adjust our operations, implement safety
measures, and provide new resources for parents given our altered reality under
this crisis.
In
the meantime, we’d like to share a high-level overview of what
we’re expecting this summer to look like…
- Inventory: We are happy to report that nearly 100% of
back-to-school inventory has been received at our Philadelphia warehouse.
As soon as the state of Pennsylvania allows, we will be ramping up
warehouse staffing to resume operations in order to increase production
capacity and quick distribution of our products out to our
retail stores.
- Retail Stores: Because of the
volume of customers our stores typically see during the August back-to-school rush, we are
modifying our in-store processes to ensure safe social distance for
both families and employees when we re-open. Simultaneously,
though, we are developing ways to make online shopping easier for families
who typically prefer to shop in-store, knowing that remote
purchase will be the safest option for families during this
crisis.
- Ecommerce: As always, our ecommerce site is ready to take customer orders any time of day, year-round. That said, we are working to address some of the reasons that some families find it difficult to shop online today, namely: sizing concerns, shipping costs, technical literacy, and difficulty receiving packages at home. We are addressing these issues as follows:
- Shipping Cost: FlynnO’Hara will
be offering free
- Sizing: We are
developing a number of resources for families to
effectively measure and size their children at home. We will
be sharing the specifics of these tools in
our May 15 communication.
- Shipping address issues: For families who
cannot ship to their home, we will continue to offer the
buy-online pick-up in-store option through our website. There is no
shipping charge for families who take advantage of this option.
- Customer Service: We will be ramping up our call center capacity through this summer for customers who have trouble shopping online, and would prefer to place an order over the phone. These customer service reps are also available, as always, to help with any customer questions or concerns.
Finally,
we understand that this crisis will have placed enormous financial strain on so
many of your school families. In an effort to relieve some
of that burden, we are working on a plan to discount orders placed
early in the season. Again, we will share the specifics of this
plan in our May 15 communication.
We
sincerely appreciate your patience during this difficult time. We hope
you – and all members of your school community – remain safe and
well. FlynnO’Hara has you in our thoughts and prayers.
Sincerely,
Barbara Perez
