Changes to Our Shopping Process to Encourage Social Distancing0(walmart store access limit)

walmart ^ | April 3, 2020 | By Dacona Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Walmart U.S.

[RomanSoldier19]

Starting Saturday, we will limit the number of customers who can be in a store at once. Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Oh, dear. Guess I’ll just order shirts and other things online, if Vermont is any indication of how they’re doing it.

[VeniVidiVici]

Oh boy going to Walmart now will be even more fun

[DugwayDuke]

Mercat wrote: “We order and pay online, make an appointment to pick up and then go pick it up. We wipe down everything when we get home.”

My local store won’t allow purchase of pickup or delivery for meat or produce.

Because of that we visited the store a couple of days ago. Not nearly the same amount of customers typical of that day/time.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I suspect that the Asian markets have things that are so spicy, the virus will simply run away screaming it’s tiny spikes off.

[familyop]

"Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity."

Tricky. That's 5 customers for each area of roughly 32x32 feet, square, where the usual capacity is five times that (re. 20 percent). The allowance is for a crowd.

In 150,000 sq. ft. supercenter, that would be 750 customers. Another problem is the lack of ventilation for heating and air conditioning efficiency.

[familyop]

Also, much of the area in square feet might be the stockroom, coolers, backroom meat department areas, employee break rooms, offices and other areas in the back.

[ConservativeInPA]

I think the food shortage is a distribution chain problem. A lot of ingredients were going to restaurants before the shutdown. Restaurants use different distributors than grocery stores. Now there is increased demand at grocery stores that has to make up for the demand restaurants are losing. And while a lot of ingredients are the same at the grocery store and restaurant, they are pre-processed differently. So the entire supply chain needs to be rearranged starting with raw ingredients so they can be processed and packaged to be sent to grocery store. This is just a guess. I'm probably just talking out my ass.

I'd stay at a Holiday Inn Express, just to get out of here for a change.

[Mercat]

“ My local store won’t allow purchase of pickup or delivery for meat or produce.” We’ve lowered our standards. Walmart. 😀

[familyop]

"Walmart is also blocking access to 'nonessential' parts of the stores."

That's been mandated in some jurisdictions but not most.

[sergeantdave]

So, the idiot politicians have created a chokepoint for Alexander’s cat food. Time for war.

[nascarnation]

20% capacity means 80% don’t get in.

That capacity is the fire marshal limit based on the store sq footage. I doubt that it gets approached very often or ever.

[silverleaf]

Good luck.
Have not been able to get a pickup time or date from any of the local markets. None. Zilch.
Good pr, no effect.

[nascarnation]

We scored a WM slot logging in right at 6am for a slot the next day.

[ncpatriot]

This is the straw that breaks the camel’s back...for me.

Better get that Trump pill ready to use NOW. Cure the virus and get back to normal

[familyop]

"Started here in Atlanta today. I needed one item. When I saw the line outside (jammed together, of course), I decided I no longer needed the item."

Thanks for the report! According to the written company policy, employees should be out there to make sure that people in line are standing six feet apart. But you know, what would Jabba the Hutt do?

*Drool* ;D

[steve86]

My one chair barber shop has always had a line.

[nascarnation]

I just got back from a WM visit to the pharmacy.
They had all the new crowd control stuff in place but the store was nearly empty of customers (6pm EDT).
What surprised me was that every checkout line was manned with a cashier, that’s double the “normal” amount.

[Songcraft]

"Oh BTW, every other person in line will be sprayed with Eau de skunk to help maintain distances."

Don't Hillary's "smelly Walmart deplorables" have that aspect covered already?      :-)

(To pass the time in these lines, maybe we can all do a Walmart line dance...)

     "Outside In Line Dance"

[Salvation]

No way?

[McGruff]

I went in the local Walmart today. There was a line of cones and tape to enter but no backup.