Coronavirus: Industry Impact 2020

Supermarket, Grocery, & C-Store

• Albertsons LLC is expanding its pharmacy-delivered immunization practice to serve children as young as age 3. The retailer will begin offering at-home COVID-19 test kits in select market areas.

• Giant Eagle is offering a checkout-free experience at its Pittsburgh-area location.

• Rouses Enterprises LLC plans to test drone grocery delivery service at a Rouses Market store in Mobile, AL.

• Thorntons LLC hosted its first ever drive-thru hiring event for its east end Louisville, KY, convenience stores.

• Whole Foods Market Inc. will offer grocery pick up from 480 stores by the end of the month.

Retail

• 1-800 FLOWERS.com Inc. is planning to hire more than 10,000 seasonal employees, quadrupling its holiday season workforce.

• Amazon.com Inc. will host its 2020 Career Day on September 16. This year it will be a virtual event.

• H&M, Primark, and Zara will open their stores at American Dream, the New Jersey mega-mall, on Oct. 1.

• Lululemon Athletica Inc. is opening 20 more seasonal pop-ups this year than normal. It’s also launched a virtual waitlist to eliminate the lines that often form outside its stores.

• Michaels Stores Inc. plans to hire over 16,000 seasonal positions to strengthen its buy-online, pickup in-store team in preparation for the 2020 holiday season.

• Scheels Sports is equipping its store associates with a mobile POS/CRM solution, the Oracle Cloud POS system.

• Walmart Stores Inc. launched a pilot program to offer grocery delivery by drone from a Fayetteville, NC, store.

Restaurant

• Chick-fil-A Inc. is expanding their menu instead of trimming it like their competitors. The chain has added two new types of coffee and a dessert brownie to their menu.

• Coolgreens will open a franchised virtual kitchen in Orlando this October followed by a physical location next year. This will be the brand’s first virtual kitchen.

• Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc. is now offering to deliver premium cuts of meat and pre-cooked sides straight to consumers. These grocery store style offerings are part of the company’s COVID-19 recovery plan.

• New York City is planning to re-open indoor dinning on September 30^th. The restaurants will be allowed to reopen at 25% capacity and the local government will reassess the situation in November to consider allowing 50% capacity.

• Roy Rogers Restaurants is now offering delivery through Uber Eats.