Some stores are offering curbside pickup during the COVID-19 pandemic, but not all of them — and that’s a problem if you need something now from a store that can’t let you inside. Postmates wants to fill that gap. It’s rolling out a feature that lets restaurants and other shops offer curbside pickup using the Postmates app as the conduit instead of building something themselves. You just have to check in through the app when you’ve arrived to grab your goods.

Retailers don’t need to do much more than enable the pickup option from the Postmates dashboard. It’s not guaranteed that you’ll see many stores use this, but it could still play an important role as cities gradually reopen — even if your local store is fully open, this could help you avoid the anxiety of venturing indoors.

GameStop’s move is unsurprisingly simpler given the products it sells: you’re limited to conventional curbside pickup and online deliveries.

In both cases, the stores are taking better care of employes. Staff won’t have to work if they aren’t “comfortable” with coming in, and those who’ve lost their working hours will receive two weeks’ pay based on a 10-week average. GameStop is also reimbursing benefit-eligible staff with a month of the employee portion of their benefit expenses.

The retail chains don’t have much choice. Even in states that don’t have shelter-in-place orders, officials are urging the public to stay at home as much as possible and reduce the spread of the coronavirus. That’s having a chilling effect on sales in general, let alone on retail. There’s also a question of public perception. GameStop in particular has been accused of knowingly putting employees’ lives at risk by remaining open, to the point where it was prepared to defy law enforcement. If they didn’t close their stores to walk-ins, they risked alienating many of their would-be customers.