The retail shopping experience has had to change during the pandemic to help reduce the opportunity for the virus to spread. Various stores and businesses have managed to implement their own new systems, but the upcoming holiday season could quickly uproot these changes. That’s why some stores are rolling back to their early pandemic precautions. In fact, Walmart just announced that they’re reinstating this COVID safety measure: limiting store capacity to just 20 percent. Read on to find out why Walmart is making the change, and for more recent news from this major retailer, find out What Walmart Will Finally Start Selling in All 50 States.
Walmart will go back to limiting the number of customers inside its stores to just 20 percent of the store’s capacity during this year’s Black Friday shopping experience, Bloomberg reported. The retailer originally made this same change back at the beginning of April to “encourage social distancing,” but eased up on this strict capacity over the last few months—moving to only limiting the number of people based on “various state and local ordinances.”
Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year every year, bringing in massive crowds like you’ve never seen before. And that’s exactly what Walmart is trying to avoid by implementing this new, reinvented Black Friday experience. To find out what other changes Walmart is making during this year’s shopping holiday, keep reading, and for more retail news you might have missed, discover which Popular Discount Chain Is Launching a New Shopping Experience.
Black Friday is known for being a yearly one-day event (or two days, if stores open early on Thanksgiving) the Friday after Thanksgiving. But this year, Walmart is reinventing the holiday from one single day to three separate events scattered throughout the month of November.
“Customers trust Walmart to deliver an amazing Black Friday year after year. Although this year’s event looks different, our commitment to what our customers depend on us for—the absolute best prices of the season on hot gifts from top brands—hasn’t changed,” Scott McCall, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., said in a statement. And for more recent Walmart news, check out Walmart’s Exciting New Surprise for These 6 States.
Each of the three savings events will start online this year, rather than in-person, to encourage shoppers to find deals safely from their home during the pandemic.
For the first event, Walmart will offer deals on “toys, electronics, and home products” starting online Nov. 4. The first indoor savings event will begin in stores three days later on Nov. 7. For the second event, deals will begin online Nov. 11 and enter in-store Nov. 14. And the last event will coincide with actual Black Friday, as deals will start online Nov. 25 and arrive in-store on Nov. 27. And for more holiday retail news, find out Which Beloved Brand Target Is Bringing Back for Christmas.
As a result of the pandemic, many retailers were forced to cut down on shopping hours to allow employees a longer time to sanitize stores. For Walmart, this meant getting rid of their various 24-hour stores and opening up at 7 a.m. every day, instead. However, on each of the in-store Black Friday event days, Walmart will be opening two hours earlier nationwide: Doors will open at 5 a.m. on Nov. 7, Nov. 14, and Nov. 27. And for more shopping changes you may see from this retailer soon, This Massive Walmart Redesign Is About to Change the Way You Shop.
People used to prepare themselves to wake up early, wait in long lines, and fight the crowds inside stores to secure Black Friday deals. But all that is changing this year. Alongside online deals, Walmart shoppers also have the option to order online and then pick up their items using Walmart’s contact-free curbside pickup service. And that means customers never even have to set foot inside of a Walmart store to fight others for discounted products.
“I’m really excited that this year, when it matters most to our customers, we’re offering them more convenient and safer ways to shop Black Friday at Walmart, whether that’s from the shelf in one of our stores, ordering online and picking it up curbside, or having it delivered right to their front door,” McCall said.
