Why many stores are staying open
Some retailers say they sell ‘essential’ goods
As normal everyday life grinds to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic, some of the nation’s biggest retailers have temporarily closed thousands of stores to help stem the spread of the virus. Simon Property Group, the largest owner of shopping malls in the nation, closed all of its properties on Wednesday. Westfield and Taubman malls followed with U.S. closures on Thursday.
Not everyone is deserting their posts. Grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies are keeping their doors open to help people stay stocked with essentials, though many are shortening store hours to clean and restock. Walmart, the world’s largest brickand-mortar retailer, shortened hours beginning Thursday, for the second time in less than a week.
Those stores are joined by office supply and home improvement chains which say they, too, provide essentials. Among the justifications: they provide products people – including first responders – need in a natural disaster. Others say they sell supplies that people need to work and school their children from home.
And then there are retailers like GameStop and Barnes & Noble, who, as of Thursday afternoon, were staying open with reduced hours and announced steps to implement social distancing. But public experts say these stores don’t fulfill a critical need in the same way as pharmacies and home improvement stores.
“We have a very short window to prevent this crisis from turning into a catastrophe,” said Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health expert at George Washington University. “So, it is the responsibility of every person to do their part to not do anything that’s not essential.” She said all nonessential stores should close to help stop the spread of the virus.
Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, said stores providing essentials must remain open, but others should close.
“The more people interact with other people, the more the opportunity to spread,” he said. “Stores are a perfect place for viruses to transmit, especially
when they are crowded.”
Providing essentials during COVID-19 crisis
Walgreens stores nationwide have adjusted hours. Most locations, including 24-hour stores, will be open from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. The drive-thru at 24-hour pharmacy locations will remain open for pick up of prescriptions and other select products. Competitor CVS wasn’t making a similar move as of Thursday afternoon.
“We currently have no plans to close stores or alter hours of operation unless directed to do so,” T.J. Crawford, CVS Health vice president, external affairs, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Lowe’s hadn’t changed hours at its nearly 2,000 stores as of Thursday either, spokeswoman Jackie Pardini Hartzell said, noting “stores continue to stay open as we are providing essential supplies for customers, government officials and first responders.”
Rival Home Depot is temporarily shortening hours and closing nightly at 6 p.m., spokeswoman Margaret Smith told USA TODAY, adding the retailer is “committed to keeping stores open just as we always do during times of crisis and natural disaster.”
Staples and Best Buy also are staying open with shorter hours. Staples said in a statement to USA TODAY that it plans to remain open “to support local communities in their new realities of working and learning from home.”
Best Buy has reduced hours and, on March 23, will begin permitting a small number of customers into the store at a time and is working to enhance its curbside service, CEO Corie Barry said in a letter to customers.
“You are turning to us for help getting the technology that allows you to continue running a small business or shift your usual job from an office setting to your home,” Barry said. “You are turning to us to help your children continue their education outside of their classroom.“
Social distancing, curbside pickup
Curbside pickup is coming of age during the pandemic, both with restaurants and retailers.
While Dick’s Sporting Goods closed all of its stores Wednesday, it will continue to offer curbside pickup for online orders. So will Nordstrom, which closed its department stores Tuesday.
GameStop is offering curbside delivery, only allowing 10 customers in stores at a time and creating a 6-foot parameter between customers in checkout lines, Gary Riding, the company’s senior vice president of store operations, said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Riding said the gaming company has implemented the changes “so that we can be there for our customers as they are looking for sources of normalcy in their life during this stressful time.”
In an email to customers, Barnes & Noble asks customers to observe social distancing and understand “why we have removed the usual seating and similar furniture.”
Tough decision: Stay open or close?
Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester, said closing stores is a tough decision and not everyone has “the ample margins of Apple to absorb store closures.”
“For a store to turn out the lights on an entire chain overnight is drastic, disruptive and unprecedented – for customers, employees, suppliers and communities,” Kodali said.
For nonessential businesses staying open, Kodali thinks there’s a good chance they will be mandated to close in more states in the future.
“The downside, of course, is that they are accused of working against the social distancing norms now in place, and they would be considered bad corporate citizens,” she said.