Coronavirus and the Retail landscape: Walmart’s Story

The coronavirus pandemic has transformed global business operations across all industries. In
such unprecedented circumstances, our day-to-day lives have changed by great extents. As
consumers become more aware of health care protocols and begin to practice social isolation
within their homes – we observe a major shift in consumer behaviour. In combination with this,
government regulation has now forced employees to work from home. This two fold shift, in
operations both at the internal and external level has created visible impact on businesses
globally. Companies have had to adapt their operations to meet changing consumer demands,
with little to no time available to them to scale up their operations or be able to smoothly
transition into a new reality to facilitate consumers among this pandemic. It has been interesting
to observe how consumer industries have been impacted and to see how companies have
implemented health-care friendly measures within their operations.
Within the retail industry – we have seen a major impact on grocery retail. Customers no longer
wish to shop in busy supermarkets and navigate around a busy store to shop for food supplies.
Consequently, demand for online grocery deliveries has exponentially increased. A first-mover
to take drastic operational measures in this area is Walmart.
Walmart is a multi-national retail corporation based in the U.S that operates a chain of
hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. With 11,700 stores, Walmart has
become an American grocery giant. They carry an array of assortment categories like grocery
items, electronics, toys, and household’s items among many others.
Walmart’s every-day-low-pricing strategy has developed its loyal shoppers over time. The
company is able to offer marginally lower prices due to its excellent inventory management
system which the company manages by operating an efficient vendor-managed inventory
system which works directly with vendors – by keeping them informed of stock levels at all
times.

Walmart among the COVID-19 pandemic

Amidst the ongoing pandemic – Walmart’s sales across its 4700 U.S stores have increased by
20% as compared to the same time period from the previous year. The increase is directly
contributed from their grocery category which accounts for 56% of Walmart’s net sales. Such
drastic increase in sales is somewhat contributed to consumers panic buying of food items but
would be impossible without Walmart’s dedication to taking strategic initiatives in assisting
consumers in this “new reality” by ensuring compliance with safety protocols while altogether
maintaining operational efficiency. We will now explore the different measures Walmart has
taken during this time.

On March 11 – even when the

COVID-19 pandemic was less severe,
Walmart announced that it will be
enacting an emergency leave policy
for 1.4 million hourly U.S. workers
which allows them to take time off
without penalty if they fear the spread
of a new virus.
Safety Measures Protocol
Soon after, Walmart announced that it was in close communication with the Centre of Disease
control and will be following health guidelines set by them. This shows Walmart’s dedication to
partner with industry experts and implement their advice on health protocols.
Walmart further shares that they would be taking following safety measures across their stores:
(Corporate. Walmart)

  Sanitizing stores daily – especially high-traffic

and high-touch areas

 Allocating an associate to supervise sanitization

across key areas of stores

 Providing additional cleaning supplies to be used

across registers and on shopping carts

 Looking into third-party sanitization services

 Only allowing 5 customers per 1000 square feet

 Installing sneeze guards by cash registers

 Providing employees with safety equipment

 Installation of floor sticks across the store layout

to encourage distancing across stores.

Walmart has also assisted the U.S government by

partnering Walmart worker with local officials to set
up drive-thru COVID-19 testing centres across two
areas in Walmart supercentre parking lots. This
measure has been especially taken to serve health-care
workers and patients above age 65+ who may be
exhibiting symptoms of the disease.
On March 18, the Walmart Foundation also committed to $25 million dollars to support
organizations on the front lines responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. The fund will support:
(Corporate.walmart)

Revision of store timings

On March 15th and onwards, Walmart revised its 24hour store timings to opening between 6AM
and 11PM. This was done to primarily assist Walmart workers to have the time to sanitize stores
and produce and stock shelves overnight before re-opening stores in the morning.
However, on March 19th – Walmart revised the store timings to even shorter opening hours from
7AM to 8.30 PM

Special Shopping hours

In consideration of senior shoppers – March 24th onwards Walmart stores have begun to host an
hour-long senior shopping event every Tuesday for customers aged 60 and older, first
responders, customers with disabilities and anyone designated with high-risk by the Centre of
Disease Control to assist them with their shopping. This is to ensure that vulnerable shoppers can
fill their pantries while adhering to social distancing guidelines. The senior shopper’s hour will
take place from 7 to 8 AM across 2400 locations in the U.S.
Item Limitations

To ensure customers have equal opportunities to stock up on essential food items across a broad
number of customers – Walmart has introduced item limitations on some products. Stores have
limits for customers in certain categories including paper products, milk, eggs, cleaning supplies,
hand sanitizer, water, diapers, wipes, formula and baby food. This is how Walmart differentiates
itself as grocery retailers who do not implement item limitations cause distress among customers
who are unable to purchase household essentials due to customer over-purchasing.

Focus on Prioritization – Staff management

Walmart has temporarily closed its Auto Care Centres which offers car-related services in order
to focus on key demand areas like grocery categories. By doing so, they are able to re-allocate
workers to more essential areas in order to assist with store sanitation and stocking shelves to
meet customer demands. Meanwhile, the vision centres – which offer eye prescriptions are
operational as per normal to assist those with vision problems during this time. This
demonstrates Walmart’s dedication in efficient resource planning. Additionally, Walmart has
announced hiring for 150,000 jobs to assist in order fulfilment and sales associates. They have
also optimized the hiring process by reducing hiring time from two week to 24 hours only.
(CNN). Not only does this help Walmart’s brand image during this time – as many industries
have laid of thousands of workers in the U.S – Walmart has been a step ahead in ensuring
employee welfare as the company plans to dole out $545 million in early and special bonuses to
reward workers who are working overtime. Walmart will on board the new employees across
fulfilment centres and stores across and assess which key areas across the stores employees are
required. Through efficient resource planning, Walmart can been using the staffing framework.

Reduced-Risk Payment

To adhere with safety guidelines, Walmart has introduced – no contact payment, where
customers can self-checkout for free on the Walmart Pay application. Previously customers had
to touch self-checkout screens. Using the new application, customers will be able to checkout
using their smart phone with a simple QR code.

The company has also introduced no-contact pickup and delivery options – where customers
can place orders beforehand and have Walmart associates deliver order to their cars. Walmart is
also bypassing any required signatures for home deliveries and instructing workers to leave
orders outside doorsteps.
Ease of Accessibility

The map below shows how wide-spread Walmart locations are across the U.S. A quick
comparison shows there are no states in the U.S that only have a Target brand store. Meanwhile,
Walmart stores are found across greater number of states and with several locations within each
states. This show efficient site planning and site evaluation by Walmart – which has accounted
now for its increasing number of sales compared to other retailers as customers do not wish to
travel long distances to buy their groceries.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can observe that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the retail industry in
drastic ways. Essential products retailers like Walmart have been forced to re-strategize and take
precautionary measures within their processes to meet consumer demand. One thing is certain –
once this pandemic comes to an end, there will be no return to the normal but an emergence of a
“new normal” as industry experts have mentioned. Grocery retail is predicted to be permanently
disrupted owing to COVID-19 as consumer behaviour may permanently shift especially as
demand for online orders rises. It will be interesting to see how operations take route in the
future but within the industry, Walmart has proven itself as a first-mover and initiative leader
during these unpredictable and tense times.
References

Stepping Up and Helping Out: How We’re Supporting Coronavirus Testing Efforts  . (2020). Corporate - US.
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Walmart Inc. (@WalmartInc) on Twitter. (2020). Twitter.com. Retrieved 22 April 2020, from

https://twitter.com/WalmartInc

Jordan Valinsky, C. (2020). Walmart just hired 150,000 workers. It's hiring 50,000 more as coronavirus
continues. CNN. Retrieved 22 April 2020, from
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Walmart revises leave policy in face of virus; worker tests. (2020). AP NEWS. Retrieved 22 April 2020, from
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