Biggest retail giant Walmart has officially announced that it will remain closed on this thanksgiving. Hence, no in-store sales event will be organized and people have to shop using the website only. Organizing in-store sales have been a long time tradition which is going to be broken for the first time due to COVID.
Not only Walmart, but many big retailers will also be avoiding in-store sales. For so many years, Thanksgiving sales have been a welcoming sale for black friday event. But this year, because of the Coronavirus spread, Walmart has stepped back and we’ll see more of such big companies announcing the same.
Walmart stores and Sam club stores will be closed on the 26th of November. So far, we don’t have any update about the black friday sale on 27th November. The retailer has said to release more information later on it. We all know that the reason behind the closure is COVID and social distancing norms but the retailer stated that they want employees to have a day at home with loved ones.
We will see more retailers coming up with similar plans as retailers are rethinking that plans about holiday shopping amidst the coronavirus spread. Before 26th November, stores will operate on normal hours. Criticism has been going on for many years about workers should be at home on thanksgiving. So, as the retailer doesn’t have any other safe option, it announced that the workers should be with their loved ones this Thanksgiving.
Along with the update about operating on Thanksgiving, Walmart also announced that they are spending about $428 million on special bonuses to the employees. Both full-time and part-time employees will receive bonuses for working throughout the pandemic.
Information Source: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/07/21/walmart-invests-428-million-more-in-associates-with-another-special-bonus-totaling-1-1-billion-in-special-bonuses-so-far-this-year