Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says it has a playbook to deal with closures as Covid threatens to shutter stores

Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says it has a playbook to deal with closures as Covid threatens to shutter stores

Pedestrians are reflected in the window of an Abercrombie & Fitch store in New York.Craig Warga | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe possiblity that Abercrombie & Fitch will face additional rounds of temporary store closures due to rising Covid-19 cases sent the retailer's shares down Tuesday, despite it reporting an earnings beat, as investors feared the shutdowns could threaten Abercrombie's key holiday shopping season.Abercrombie is calling for sales in the fourth quarter to fall 5% to 10%, which would be a steeper decline than in its latest quarter. Its shares were down about 3% in late morning trading.CEO Fran Horowitz told CNBC in a phone interview Tuesday that it has a plan in place to soften the blow of the closures. That's something no retailer was able to attest to in March, when the pandemic first shuttered stores in an unprecedented attempt to halt the spread of the coronavirus."We've been managing through this honestly all year now, so we're understanding what it means," Horowitz said. "Eighty percent of our stores in California were closed during back-to-school this year. ... We've created a playbook."The retailer has learned how to keep a tighter control on its inventories and run a smoother business online,