The retailer has in recent weeks extended the closing time of some stores from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. By Monday, more than 4,000 of its 4,700 U.S. stores will begin closing later, the company said Friday. All Walmart stores will continue to open at 7 a.m., except on Tuesdays, when stores are open one hour early for seniors.
Walmart adds hours as cases of coronavirus spike in much of the country.
A Walmart spokesman said the extra hours could spread to customers over an extended period of time. Social distance is important to prevent the spread of the virus, and Walmart has added spacing decals on the floor and capacity limits in stores.
Extending hours will also make it more convenient for customers, said Neil Saunders, CEO of GlobalData Retail. By making this change now, workers can adjust to the extended hours before shopping in the busier holiday quarters, Saunders said.
In March, Walmart stores, most of which were open 24 hours a day, began closing overnight in response to the outbreak of coronavirus. At the time, the company said the hours of shopping allowed “employees” to “help employees” stay overnight “planks overnight and clean stores.
The Walmart spokesman said it would continue the same cleaning protocols with its extended hours and would “continue to review our remaining stores to determine the exact time to extend their closing hours.”
Walmart (WMT), the country’s largest retailer, was identified as an essential business when the pandemic struck, allowing it to remain open as other retailers had to close their doors. The company has hired 200,000 new employees in recent months to meet customer demand.
Other top sellers and growers also curated working hours to increase cleaning procedures and re-create planks in the early stages of the outbreak, but have since extended their hours.
Kroger (KR), for example, said in June it decided to go back to regular shop hours in parts of the South and Midwest in part because it hired more workers.
“We have expanded our supply chain, improved clean procedures in our stores and hired more than 100,000 new workers,” a spokesman for Kroger previously told CNN Business. “These steps have allowed us to expand retail outlets in select areas to safely meet the evolving needs of our customers as the country moves on.”
