It's the WalMart Way
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Grocery stores and big box stores are trying to adapt. I see various stores trying various arrangements to enforce social distancing, some of the use some of the ideas a WalMart uses. State guidance on social distancing is also evolving, sometimes quickly. I think these stores are trying their best, and over time, “best practices” will emerge and we will see more consistent rules adopted by different stores that stay open.
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Down in Florida, my folks are still going into the damn stores. Wal-Mart, Sam's, Costco, etc. They told me as of yesterday that no one as doing A. Damn. Thing. about social distancing. Not the employees, the customers, nobody.
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To promote health, safety and consistency for our associates and customers in this environment, we’re taking some further steps for our U.S. stores:
Regulating Store Entry
Starting Saturday, we will limit the number of customers who can be in a store at once. Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity.
To manage this restriction, the associates at a store will mark a queue at a single-entry door (in most cases the Grocery entrance) and direct arriving customers there, where they will be admitted one-by-one and counted. Associates and signage will remind customers of the importance of social distancing while they’re waiting to enter a store – especially before it opens in the morning.
Once a store reaches its capacity, customers will be admitted inside on a “1-out-1-in” basis.
Shopping Inside the Store
We’ll also institute one-way movement through our aisles next week in a number of our stores, using floor markers and direction from associates. We expect this to help more customers avoid coming into close contact with others as they shop.
We’ll continue to put signage inside our stores to remind customers of the need to maintain social distancing – especially in lines. And once customers check out, they will be directed to exit through a different door than they entered, which should help lessen the instances of people closely passing each other.
We always want people to feel welcome at Walmart, and we know that in ordinary times a store is a gathering place for members of a community to connect and socialize. We look forward to the time when that is again the case; however, we now want to prioritize health and safety by encouraging customers to do their shopping at a distance from others, then head home.
As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, our leaders and operations teams will continue to listen to advice from medical experts, associates and customers, and consider how we can best serve people while helping slow the spread of the virus. The health and safety of our associates and customers is what matters the most.
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Lowe's
We are temporarily increasing wages by $2 an hour for every full-time, part-time and seasonal hourly store, contact center and supply chain associates for hours they work throughout the month of April in the U.S. and Canada.
We will be closing all stores at 7 p.m. daily to ensure additional time to replenish essential products and thoroughly clean and sanitize our stores daily.
We are making masks and gloves available to all associates in the workplace who want them. As previously shared, all N95 medical masks were placed on a stop sale and are being donated to hospitals to protect frontline healthcare workers, along with other personal protective equipment for first responders in our communities.
We developed an app to implement a new customer limit protocol, available now on associates’ handheld devices. Each store manager can now monitor foot traffic and limit entrance based on CDC and local guidelines.
We are enhancing our social distancing protocols by adding dedicated social distancing ambassadors who will be responsible for monitoring customer flow in our garden centers and front-end areas and enforce customer limits to allow proper social distancing.
We also made substantial updates to our store floor layouts to further support the CDC’s guidelines for social distancing, such as opening up aisle space by removing displays. These changes will make it easier for both associates and customers to get the items they need quickly and safely. Specific examples include:
Removed product from the main aisle to help maintain safe distance.
Removed racking and tables in other aisles to open up space.
Expanded the area for customers leveraging our Buy Online, Pick Up In Store option or making a return
Added floor markers spaced 6-feet apart to help guide customers
We have installed customized Plexiglass shields at all points of sale to protect our cashiers and customer service associates working the return desk, one of the first retailers to do so.
We increased third-party cleaning shifts to provide incremental cleaning in our stores, beyond already enhanced daily cleaning efforts.
We shipped an additional 10,000 truckloads of essential products during this period to replenish our stores."Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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They’re learning and so are we. I had an interesting conversation with a lady on the walk/run/bike trail about why she and her 2 children should not have come onto the 4 ft wide bridge on their bikes when Finley and I were halfway across...
The boys seemed enthused about the new words I added to their vocabulary.
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At least in my elevator, they have us facing opposite directions.
But, I am being a rebel!! 55555
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@taiwan_girl lol
