“We’ll see how they respond, and based on that, we’ll be a lot smarter,” he said. “So I’m going to know a lot more by Tuesday of next week.”

Mr. Gennette sought to strike an optimistic note about the health of Macy’s business — he noted that April sales were “stronger than we expected” — but he acknowledged that the company was simply not built to sustain the complete closing of its stores for a prolonged period.

The presentation from Macy’s illustrated what the shopping experience might look like, and came days after Simon Property Group, one of the biggest U.S. mall operators, shared a similar reopening strategy with retailers. Stores will be filled with signs reminding customers to stand six feet apart, plexiglass barriers will be installed at cash registers and hand sanitizer stations will be placed by elevators and escalators. Even before the pandemic, foot traffic to stores had been down, and it remains to be seen whether shoppers will venture into these newly restricted environments while the country continues to deal with a highly contagious virus.

“Over the last several years, the way stores fought back against online was to suggest that the experience was worth the trip,” said Simeon Siegel, a managing director at BMO Capital Markets who covers retail and e-commerce. “In this new normal, for now, the experience is what puts you at risk. So it falls to the retailers to figure out how to create a socially distanced experience that makes the trip worth the inconvenience and the risk.”

Mr. Siegel said he was surprised to see Macy’s create a plan for the next six weeks, given the uncertainty around when many states will relax shutdown orders and the possibility that a flare-up of illness could force them to close again.