As grocery shopping has become equal parts essential and fraught during the coronavirus crisis, safety responses have varied from chain to chain. One retail juggernaut has gone as far as temporarily shutting down certain stores in New Jersey.
Walmart has closed four of its 71 New Jersey locations for one day each over the last two weeks, in order for for third-party cleaning and to restock merchandise according to spokesperson Phillip Keene. The Garfield store closed on April 9, the Freehold location was closed on April 17 and both the Secaucus and Kearny locations were shut down on April 20. In all four cases, the stores reopened the next day without issue.
Positive COVID-19 tests among staff members, inadequate staffing numbers and stocking issues are all among the considerations that can trigger a one-day shutdown at a Walmart location, Keene said. Walmart is initiating the closings, with no outside input from health departments.
“We’re assessing a number of factors in stores in hot zones like New Jersey and the New York metro area for issues that we want to correct in terms of customer service,” Keene said. “It could be that we’re assessing stock levels, or the scheduling for associates and how we’re being able to serve customers to our standards in those stores. And then, of course, we’re not immune to COVID."
Walmart is not disclosing specific cases and is not announcing when staff members test positive, citing privacy issues. Even if they were sharing it, Keene would not confirm if there were COVID-19 cases at the four New Jersey locations.
How stores are handling coronavirus cases among staff members has varied throughout New Jersey. ShopRite has been transparent, announcing cases on their store’s specific Facebook pages, while Kings Food Market emails loyalty club members at individual stores to disclose cases. Stop and Shop confirmed it had staff members test positive and is disclosing them to local health departments but not announcing them publicly citing privacy concerns.
Keene says the closures are proactive, and that New Jersey’s location in the coronavirus epicenter makes them necessary. He noted that a Long Island location had the same type of closure, and wouldn’t rule out more New Jersey stores shutting down for a day as the pandemic continues.
“Those stores are in areas of the country where you know COVID is prevalent," Keene said. “You’re trying to do your very best to stay ahead as much as anybody can of any sort of issues, you know, COVID-related or staffing-related or stock-related. It would make sense that you would make that sort of decision in those in those locations... What’s the very best we can do? Part of the answer to that is closing the facility for a day and getting caught up, and then being able to open up the customers and serve the community."
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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.
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