Walmart temporarily shuts down 60 of its stores in US

Retailing giant Walmart has on a temporary basis closed nearly 60 of its stores in the United States at the COVID-19 hotspots in the month of December. The stores have been closed so they could be sanitized as the omicron variant continues to be a threat to the retail industry. The Walmart store locations in Texas, and New Jersey were closed for two days for cleaning and sanitization. The measures are being taken to provide a safe and clean in-store environment for the staff members and and the customers.

However, the company has not spoken anything about the potential impact of the store closures. The new measure was implemented two years back when the coronavirus pandemic had just started. It was then decided that the store would be closed for a couple of days for cleaning purpose. A spokesperson from Walmart while taking to a leading daily said that they have been closely monitoring the stores across the country. The spokesperson added that they have been temporarily closing the locations on a store by store basis with the help of a market-related data.

Walmart did not comment if its own staff members had tested positive for COVID. The United States is facing a fresh spike of the omicron variant of COVID which has forced a number of retailers and restaurant chains to shut down the stores and limit the access to the customers. AS per a memo shown by two of the Walmart workers, a Laurel, Maryland, Walmart facility was closed last week as the community was facing a spike in the number of coronavirus infections.

They had informed that a number of people at the store had contracted COVID-19 but Walmart did not confirm. If the store closures related to COVID continue till late January 2022, then it would leave some of the investors worried. On the other hand competitor Target mentioned that it has so far not shut down any of its stores for sanitization or COVID related reasons.

Photo Credits: Pixabay