How Walmart, McDonald’s and Kroger Are Finding Masks for Workers - The Wall Street Journal

Whole Foods Market has begun mandating workers cover up with masks during shifts.
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Micah Maidenberg

The Wall Street Journal

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@MicahMaidenberg
micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

April 22, 2020 7:00 am ET

Retailers and restaurants that have kept their doors open through the pandemic are buying up masks and gloves to protect their employees on the job. It hasn’t been easy.

Shoppers and workers are calling on companies to equip employees with masks to prevent the transmission of coronavirus as more government officials urge mask-wearing in public. Some retailers say they are struggling to find nonmedical masks in the quantities they need.

The challenge illustrates the depth of demand for protective gear right now, even for companies whose global supply chains allow them to deliver a vast, ever-changing array of products for customers.

In a White House briefing in early April, President Trump said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending the voluntary use of face coverings for Americans to help reduce transmission of the novel coronavirus. Photo: Angela Weiss/Getty

Kroger Co., which started distributing cloth and paper masks to workers in some parts of the country earlier this month, recently lost one bid for a batch of masks to the Italian government, said Rodney McMullen, chief executive of the Cincinnati-based grocer.

“We were disappointed, but we’re going to keep at it,” Mr. McMullen said.

Kroger and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union last week asked officials to declare grocery workers first responders during the pandemic, which could give them priority access to protective gear. Albertsons Cos., which runs Vons, Safeway and other groceries, has said it supports such a designation. No state has deemed grocery workers as full first responders to date, according to the union.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. tapped dozens of suppliers, an unusually high number, to get masks for its workers, a spokesman for the drugstore chain said.

Publix Super Markets Inc., a grocer with stores mainly in the Southeast, has warned employees that it might not be able to distribute masks and gloves indefinitely. A spokeswoman didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Starbucks employees working the drive-through window in Edgewater, Colorado.
Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

Simple paper masks worn with elastic straps might cost anywhere from 30 cents to $1 each right now, up from roughly 15 cents each a year ago, according to Foster Finley, global co-head of the transportation and infrastructure practice at AlixPartners LLP. “People are paying more,” he said.

Chicken Salad Chick LLC, a chain of chicken restaurants, saw prices from $3 to $5 each for cloth masks a couple of weeks ago, according to Scott Deviney, chief executive of the Auburn, Ala.-based restaurant company with about 150 stores, most of them run by franchisees. More recently, that number has slipped to $2 to $4 each.

“You found some that were reasonably priced, and you found some that were very expensive,” he said. The company ultimately placed an initial order for about 3,000 cloth masks at the lower end of the $3-to-$5 range, he said.

The rush for masks—including the more sophisticated N95 products that filter most tiny particles, surgical masks and more simple cloth coverings—has been a hallmark of the pandemic in the U.S. Large manufacturers such as 3M Co. have stepped up N95 production, while smaller manufacturers have started making cloth masks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month recommended people cover their faces when venturing into supermarkets and other public places. Covering up could help prevent people who don’t know they are infected from spreading the virus, the agency said.

Retailers say they have been following CDC guidelines and local laws. More companies, including Walgreens, Amazon.com Inc.’s Whole Foods Market and CVS Health Corp. have begun mandating workers cover up with masks during shifts.

“We’re confident we have enough of an incoming supply, but it’s something we have to continually work at,” said a CVS spokesman.

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Finding masks came fairly easily for Hy-Vee Inc., a grocer with 80,000 employees at stores in Iowa, Minnesota and other Midwestern states, a spokeswoman said. Multiple vendors approached Hy-Vee offering to sell masks; it ordered more than 200,000 reusable cloth masks, she said.

This week, Walmart Inc. began requiring employees to wear masks at work, while Lowe’s Cos . said earlier this month it would give masks to employees who wanted to wear them. Target Corp. said it would provide workers with disposable masks at the beginning of each shift. “Those supplies are rolling out now,” the company said.

McDonald’s Corp. needs 900,000 a masks a day to keep its crews protected, executives said Tuesday. The company located 100 million nonmedical masks after a global search and is working on getting them to U.S. restaurants.

Yum Brands Inc.’s KFC has distributed 13 million nonsurgical disposable masks to workers in the U.S., according to a spokeswoman.

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Rick Gentry, a contractor who works in the Minneapolis area, said he noticed last week that employees he often encounters at a Home Depot Inc. store were wearing masks. He said he was surprised they hadn’t donned masks earlier.

“They should have had them within a week, as soon as consumers started wearing them,” he said. Home Depot has been following CDC guidelines on mask-wearing and moved as quickly as possible to provide coverings to employees, a spokeswoman said.

Janet Wainwright, a 56-year-old meat cutter at a Kroger store in Yorktown, Va., said the grocer recently distributed masks made of a paper material to her and her co-workers. She said she isn’t sure she can disinfect it as thoroughly as the cloth mask that she purchased herself.

“A lot of us went out and bought our own cloth masks,” Ms. Wainwright said.

—Jaewon Kang and Heather Haddon contributed to this article.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com