COVID-19 Update: New hours for Whole Foods

There’s a lot of news coming out of Whole Foods corporate that affects our store:

NEW, SHORTER HOURS
As of yesterday, Whole Foods is shortening its hours so that employees can have more time to restock shelves, sanitize the stores and rest in preparation for the next day. During this time, stores will remain open for pickup and staff will continue to fulfill Prime delivery orders. So the new hours are 8a to 9p.

SHOPPING FOR SENIORS-ONLY
In addition, customers 60 and over can shop without rest of the public from 7 to 8a. (Just a curious aside: in the UK, the age is 70 and over.) “We are setting aside this time to help these customers, who national health authorities have identified as among the most vulnerable to COVID-19, feel more comfortable shopping our stores and helping to ensure they are able to get the items they need in a less crowded environment.”

ADDITIONAL PAY FOR EMPLOYEES
Whole Foods also announced that it will pay full- and part-time hourly employees an additional $2 per hour through the end of April, as will Amazon.As a grocer, we believe serving customers and the community during this time is essential. Today, Amazon announced that they are providing hourly employees with an additional $2 per hour through the end of April.

ADJUSTMENTS TO PREPARED FOODS
Temporary closure of hot bars, salad bars, soup bars and self-serve pizza.
Seating areas are closed.
Self-serve offerings will be closed in additional departments.

(I also see that dogs are no longer permitted in the store unless they are service animals.)

 

5 Comments

  1. I haven’t been there in a while … are the shelves still bare?

    • They seem to be limiting how many people can be in the store at once. There was a line outside today with people spaced 6′ apart.

  2. Dogs were never permitted in the store, the security just got lax and people don’t care about rules. Also, many claim to have security dogs and security can do nothing about it. Shelves are still pretty bare, but they are stocking better on a daily basis and you can go in without being in a total state of panic. At least, yesterday it seemed that way.

  3. Fully restocked as of Saturday 3/21 when I shopped. Plenty available. It does look like a supply chain change/disruption, as you do see more space between products and several former brands are no longer available.

    Trader Joe’s at Spring St & 6th had a long line Sunday. 6′ social distancing chalk-lines drawn on sidewalk. About a 20 minute wait at 2pm. Once in, the extra space allowed for really quick and easy shopping, the stock was terrific, the employees were kind and helpful. They were playing Billy Idol’s “Hot in the City” and I could actually hear it. Pricing even seemed unusually LOW, too.

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