Global breakout of deadly coronavirus has largely been overwhelming the healthcare facilities pushing them to extreme limits. The retail industry has been experiencing a surge in purchase orders both physical purchases and online orders. This pressure being felt by healthcare facility is also also being felt by the retail industry, however, in a different way.
World’s largest online retailer Amazon Inc. (AMZN) has announced due to a spike in online orders caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the e-commerce giant will be using different measures to reduce online orders at some whole food stores.
The company says the measure is made to give priority to existing overwhelming online orders prompted by a panic buy due to the pandemic.
In the past two or so months, Amazon has increased its total number of Whole Foods stores offering grocery pick up from 80 to 150 to try and address the increasing demand.
The company says it’s putting extra measures in place to address the surging demand issue, among them Amazon will start queuing incoming delivery customers in a wait list, it will also cut sown shopping hours for customers.
Reduction of the shopping hours is made to enable employees have enough time for filling existing online orders quickly and diligently.
Nonetheless, Amazon workers still went on with their protest against the company not protecting them enough against getting infected with coronavirus.
The workers based at Whole foods and the company’s warehouses, held demonstrations which attracted the attention of unions and lawyers. Citing reports published on various platforms, over 50 Amazon employees have tested positive for coronavirus disease a majority of the coming from Whole foods stores and the warehouses.
Through its vice president of Grocery, Stephenie Landry, Amazon believes the combination of rising demand and measures put in place to combat spread of coronavirus still pose a major hurdle therefore advising customers to shop physical if possible.
“We still expect the combination of restricted capacity due to social distancing and customer demand will continue to make finding available delivery windows challenging for customers. “If you are able to do so safely, we kindly encourage our customers who can to shop in-person,” said Landry.
