Coronavirus: Walmart will cut hours starting Sunday to give concerned workers time to restock and sanitize
Several grocery chain stores across the United States are temporarily closing or changing the work hours during the coronavirus outbreak.
On Saturday, America's largest retailer Walmart announced that it would be reducing its working hours to give its employees time to restock the shelves overnight, as the company has witnessed a drastic increase in the inflow of customers who are stocking up on supplies fearing a situation where they might have to self-isolate.
This comes in the wake of other retailers like Publix, The Giant Company, Wegman and Harris Teeter reducing their daily hours to restock and clean. Publix, which has more than 1,200 stores, will be closing two hours early 8 pm. The Giant Company will close its 24-hour stores at midnight. Wegmans will close its 24-hour stores at 11 pm or midnight. Harris Teeter, a large supermarket chain serving the southeast, will close stores at 9 pm instead of midnight.
While Walmart stores that do not operate 27/7 will maintain their usual schedules, the ones that do will have their opening hours cut back to 6 am until 11 pm, reports Daily Mail. Commenting on the same, Dacona Smith, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Walmart US, said, “This will help ensure associates are able to stock the products our customers are looking for and to perform cleaning and sanitizing.”
This development comes after several employees of grocery outlets took to social media to air their grievances. On the Walmart Reddit thread, posted before the company's change of schedule, an employee called on the company to shut stores to the public overnight.
"I did not mean close the stores down to employees - I need my paycheck! I mean close all 24 hour supercenters to the public during the overnight shift so employees can recover from the day," it said.
"Associates would still work, but without the constant disruption of angry customers so they could get the products on the shelf...That stress is starting to take a toll on all of us. Especially those taking on extra shifts or coming in on our days off to meet the demand. It would only be temporary overnight closures until the panic settles down.'
Smith had a word for these concerns as well and thanked the Walmart employees for standing defiant against the novel coronavirus and doing their job efficiently.
"To our associates, thank you for your incredible work during this time. I know it hasn't always been easy, but your entire Walmart family is so proud of what you are doing and the important difference you are making, both for your neighbors and for your country,” he said.
Meanwhile, social media is flooded with tweets regarding the shortage of toilet papers in stores.
“I had the pleasure of actually seeing it inside of Walmart during the restock of toilet paper. Gone in 60 seconds!,” quipped one Twitter user.
“I've never gone prepping at walmart for a zombie apocalypse before, but at 1:30 a.m. Sunday this had all the earmarks of what it must be like. The place's disheveled aisles looked like a kmart halfway through a liquidation sale. Unreal,” another added.