The Drive Thru: L'Oreal reopens offices, more chains file for bankruptcy, and the future of the department store remains in flux

Hello!

Congrats on making it to another Friday! It's hard to believe it's already (checks notes...) August! If you're generally confused, as I am, about what day of the week (or month) it is, don't sweat it. You can always count on the retail team at Business Insider to let you know another week has passed by with The Drive Thru, our weekly and punctual round-up of everything you need to know in retail and restaurant news.

By the way, if you haven't yet, subscribe to The Drive-Thru here to stay on top of it all — and to get me, Shoshy Ciment, and my colleague, Kate Taylor, in your inbox every Friday!

Here's what you need to know:

Retail bankruptcies of the week: Tailored Brands, Lord & Taylor, and Le Tote

Another week, another bankruptcy filing. This week, three major companies joined the ever-growing list of the 28 retailers that have filed for bankruptcy or liquidation in 2020.

• The parent company of suit retailer Men's Wearhouse, Tailored Brands, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. Tailored brands plans to close up to 500 stores during a restructuring process.
• Department store Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy on Monday.
• Le Tote, a subscription clothing company that acquired Lord & Taylor in 2019, filed for bankruptcy as well.

Bucking the trend: On the bright side, Dick's Sporting Goods announced it is opening 11 new locations this month.

L'Oreal is reopening its US offices — and some employees resent being made to return to work in a pandemic

L'Oréal USA, which employs nearly 11,000 people, began calling its employees back to work in early July. But internal communications reveal a sense of fear and frustration among employees regarding returning to the offices.

Some employees who want to work from home are being required to give the company access to their medical history or a doctor's note. At the same time, L'Oreal workers say they are being bombarded with screensaver images of smiling employees in the office, even as they dread returning to work in person.

"They keep repeating how positive people are reacting and it's bull***t because no one wants to go back," said a current L'Oréal employee who works in California. "It's pure gaslighting."

In a statement to Business Insider, L'Oreal said, "Being together is a key ingredient to our culture and essential to the success of our business in a creative industry."

Read some more of my reporting on L'Oreal here.

The future of shopping: Department stores, dressing rooms, and tech for social distancing

The future of the physical store is in flux. As Madeline reported this week, "department stores will likely have to evolve to survive." Such changes, she found, could play out in the form of downsizing or an upgrade to omnichannel services.

Some stores are already getting creative. J.Crew is offering 30-minute private shopping sessions to allow shoppers to use the normally closed fitting rooms. Bethany tried a session and said it was the "closest to a state of pre-pandemic normalcy" she felt since the pandemic began.

At the same time, new technologies are making it easier for stores to implement social distancing. Catherine rounded up five retail startups, which have raised $90m from VCs, that are focused on making the future of shopping a safe and distant one.

Retail history lessons you probably never learned in school

Some of our favorite brands and chains have interesting and unexpected origin stories. Here are few pieces of retail history you might not have heard about before.

• The $3.98 bra that changed lingerie forever
• The rise of the Oreo, milk's favorite cookie
• The 200-year rise and fall of Lord & Taylor
• JCPenney's first-ever store location was founded in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming

Everything else you need to know:

• One store says Starbucks' famed Pumpkin Spice Latte could return as early as August 28
• Hayley's mysterious case of getting COVID-19 while pregnant after months of strict isolation is a wild ride. (Spoiler alert: She has fully recovered and is back to rocking it on the retail desk, as usual)
• Clorox's "very complex" supply chain will make the wipes hard to find until 2021
• Is this the end of jeans as we know it?
• You might want to stay away from certain salad bags containing red onions