Eight months into a grueling pandemic that sent thousands of stores into lockdown and others into bankruptcy, retailers both big and small are looking to President-elect Joe Biden’s administration for relief.

More than 97,000 businesses have permanently closed over the course of the pandemic as states and counties issued public health orders to lock down storefronts to curb the fast-moving virus, according to estimates from Yelp.

Even well-capitalized retailers, such as Kohl’s, L Brands — which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works — and PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, have had to cut staff and permanently shutter some stores.

Now, even with two promising vaccine candidates on the horizon, retailers are bracing for a slow crawl out of the pandemic as a new leader takes over the White House, stepping into an increasingly fraught relationship with China and a domestic economy that could fall deeper into a recession.