like janet dee, 43 years with macy's in new york. >> this is going to be devastating to so many people. >> reporter: violet moya lost her job at a houston sephora six weeks ago. and still hasn't received unemployment benefits. >> idid apply for food stamps. and it did thankfully went through, thankfully, because i didn't know how was i was gonna buy food. >> reporter: stores shed jobs, of course, as sales plunged a record 16.4% down from march to april, a bloodbath for the economy, since retail accounts for about half of all consumer spending, which in turn drives some 70% economic activity. >> when we first entered lock down, there was a hope that this would be very quick, it would be a kind of v-shaped recovery. i think most retailers now no longer hold on to that hope. >> reporter: neil saunders monitors the sector for global data retail. >> you've still got a lot of economic distress, massive unemployment, a lot of people very uncertain about the future. it probably won't 2021 before we get back to any semblance of normality in retail. >> reporter: in acute pain: clothing stores, w