CHICAGO (Reuters) – Walmart temporarily shut almost 60 U.S. stores in COVID-19 hotspots in December to sanitize them against the virus, in a sign the new Omicron variant is disrupting the retail industry.
The Walmart stores – in locations including Texas and New Jersey – were closed for cleaning “to present a safe and clean in-store environment for our associates and customers,” a company spokesperson told Reuters in a statement. Walmart has more than 4,700 U.S. locations in total.
It adopted a policy two years ago at the start of the coronavirus pandemic of closing stores for fewer than two days to “get ahead” of potential outbreaks.
(Reporting by Richa Naidu; Editing by Vanessa O’Connell, Anna Driver and Stephen Coates)
