March 14, 2020 – Store shelves at Decatur Walmart and Kroger location Saturday were bare of many items considered essential staples in the average household. Items such as bread, eggs, frozen foods, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and meats were hard to come by as shoppers converged on grocery stores in attempts to stock up.
Workers at Walmart North struggled to keep re-stocking items as shoppers seemed to empty the shelves as fast as they were supplied. “It’s been crazy. . just crazy. But we’re gonna be alright. People just need to be kind and considerate and wash their hands”, said one young employee who declined to be identified. He had been restocking an endcap of paper plates when he stopped to assist a customer reach an upper shelf.
Stores, such as Walmart, who pride themselves as “Always Open” have announced they will now close daily from 11pm to 6am at both locations in order to allow for employees to restock supply. The chain has also suspended it’s recently launched online grocery department in an effort to restock.
Kroger has released the following statement regarding store hours and procedures (updated March 15th at 11:30am):
In order to better serve our customers and support the needs of our associates, we will alter service hours at our Kroger Central Division locations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio. Effective at closing tonight, our Kroger, Pay Less and Owen’s stores will temporarily shift their service hours, operating from 7:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M.
Our supply chain teams are working tirelessly to ensure that food, medicine and cleaning supplies reach our customers as quickly as possible. This schedule change will allow our store teams to focus on stocking the fresh, affordable food and essentials that our customers are looking for when they walk in our stores. The change will also allow even greater attention to cleaning our stores.
In addition, customers at Kroger are limited to the number of cold, flu and sanitary products per order. Additional limits may be instituted based on supply.
Officials are encouraging the public to only purchase needed items for the length of one to two weeks to allow for enough supply for everyone.
