Walmart Briefly Closes 60 U.S. Stores To Protect Against Covid-19

Jan 4, 2022 By MarketDepth

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Walmart Store

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) briefly closed down approximately 60 U.S. locations during December in order to clean those stores and protect customers against the virus as the new omicron variant continues to surge. However, the company has yet to comment on the possible impact of the closures.

Stores in Texas and New Jersey

The temporary shutdowns included stores located in Texas and New Jersey and were able “to present a safe and clean in-store environment for our associates and customers,” according to a company spokesperson. The retail giant has a total of over 4,700 U.S. locations.

“We’ve been closely monitoring our stores across the country, making the decision to temporarily close locations on a store-by-store basis through a collection of market-related data.”

Walmart spokesperson

Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases within the U.S., many big name retailers and restaurant chains have decided to temporarily close down and restrict access to customers.

Rivals Followed Different Paths

Nevertheless, rival Target told Reuter that it had not closed down any of its stores for sanitization or any other Covid-related reasons since the start of December. Meanwhile, CVS admitted that it had only needed to temporarily close “fewer than 10 locations” for “enhanced cleaning” during that time span.