Saks president Marc Metrick takes us behind Fifth Avenue’s reopening

Our Fifth Avenue’s treasured Saks Fifth reopened today. President Marc Metrick, who’s been there forever and probably sold Hiawatha his first tux: “We’ve opened 33 of our 43 stores. But this one, our flagship, gets us excited. “We’ve stocked 5,000 masks for our associates. Besides instituting 100 hand sanitizer stations, sanitizing escalator handrails continually and …

Our Fifth Avenue’s treasured Saks Fifth reopened today.

President Marc Metrick, who’s been there forever and probably sold Hiawatha his first tux: “We’ve opened 33 of our 43 stores. But this one, our flagship, gets us excited.

“We’ve stocked 5,000 masks for our associates. Besides instituting 100 hand sanitizer stations, sanitizing escalator handrails continually and ultraviolet light disinfecting elevators, every customer will be handed a mask and hand cleanser upon arrival. We’ll also provide receptacles at the exit for any that might get discarded.

“Space was allocated for returns, which then become unavailable for 24 hours, during which they’re re-cleaned and quarantined. See, we’ve been operating all along on a curbside basis. Besides SaksFifth.com, the store itself maintained same-day delivery service to the Hamptons. We have a great relationship with our customers. Just call your associate, and they put whatever you want in your cart and it arrives that very day.”

(Minus a personal “associate,” us peons may stay in our pj’s.)

“We, the first flagship to close, were prepared. We closed Friday before the shutdown. Look, I’ve experienced things before. When we were attacked 9/11, I thought nothing could be worse. Then came the ’08 financial crisis. Retailers need to be flexible and agile. The unknown is what we must know.

“Spas, cosmetics, makeup treatments are temporarily suspended. Salespeople demonstrate on their own faces.

“We closed in March but had already received summer shipments so our merchandise is all-new, timely and business as usual.”

How about markdowns? Sales?
“Not yet.”

Tough cookie on ‘Guard’

Charlize Theron’s new one is “The Old Guard.”

“I trained four months, five days a week, for this adventure. A mix of strength conditioning and fight training. The combat involved an ax-like weapon. I’ve never worked with stuff like this. It was tough.”

The Oscar winner said of “Mad Max: Fury Road” that “everything was about survival.” But this one may have been even tougher. She was injured at one point, but she kept going. The locations, less tough. Morocco, London, Kent. Also castles.

The baddie in this is Chiwetel Ejiofor from “12 Years a Slave.”

Emotion, estrogen, ass-kicking, it premieres on Netflix July 10.

Half a ballot?

Attention: Some Queens voters received only one sheet of candidates. Should be two. John Ciafone, running for civil court judge, was among others left off the ballots.

A resident called the Board of Elections, who replied, “So we made mistakes. Vote again.” That’s impossible because they then had checked your name off of the list.

God bless America.

I didn’t do it for the glamour …

I’m asked why I’m in HBO’s available-to-stream doc on Roy Cohn with the nice, concise title “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.” I did only this one because I felt society owed director Ivy Meeropol, the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — whom Cohn prosecuted as spies and sent to death.

I saw him kill my proposed Estée Lauder book when he was paid to do so. I saw Cohn try to use me when I joined The Post. Now I hear I’m in Nicholas von Hoffman’s book “Citizen Cohn.”

Although I saw Roy with his beau as Roy’s new face unraveled, he was my husband’s friend. I inherited him.

With zero galas booked these past months, two party-planners raised their glasses at one recently held event.

The toast? “To the two happiest people here tonight — the florist and the caterer.”

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.