Supermarket, Grocery, & C-Store
• Giant Food LLC now has all the vaccinations available at its 153 in-store pharmacies. The grocery retailer had suspended all non-essential services such as vaccines earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Marathon Petroleum Corporation has revised the target date to spin off its Speedway LLC retail transportation fuels and convenience-store subsidiary into an independent, publicly-traded company, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The new target date is early 2021.
• Northgate Gonzalez Market Inc. has begun offering Instacart same-day online grocery delivery from 36 of its stores across Southern California.
• The Save Mart Companies has made nearly 700 of the 1,000 temporary workers hired during the coronavirus pandemic full-time employees.
• TravelCenters of America Inc. is reopening its restaurants, but with lots of modifications. It has cut down its occupancy to 25-50 percent, is separating its tables by at least six feet, and is only making every other booth unavailable for use.
• Wawa Inc. is bringing curbside pickup to more than 30 stores this summer with expansion plans through the fall. Cumberland Farms and QuickChek have recently launched curbside pickup in response to the pandemic.
Retail
• 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. has filed for bankruptcy after its facilities were forced to shut down for months. The company has permanently closed 100 locations in 14 states.
• Amazon.com Inc. is introducing an in-house-developed technology that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to the camera footage in its buildings to help identify high-traffic areas and implement additional measures to improve social distancing.
• CVS Health has partnered with on-demand delivery provider DoorDash for same-day delivery of food, grocery, nonfood, and non-prescription products. The retailer said it expects the national launch through DoorDash in July.
• CVS Health opened 10 new COVID-19 test sites at select CVS Pharmacy drive-thru locations across Kansas.
• Crew Group Inc. has reopened more than half of its stores and is bringing back furloughed employees.
• Nordstrom Inc. announced it will reopen all of its locations in Washington by the end of June.
• Sam’s Club plans to roll out curbside pickup service to all of its locations by the end of June.
• Staples Inc. announced it is launching same-day delivery from more than 1,000 of its stores in collaboration with Instacart.
• Tuesday Morning Corp. announced it will close 230 stores this summer, citing the financial hardships related to COVID-19 stay at home orders.
Restaurant
• AT&T Inc. has donated $7,500 to The California Restaurant Association Foundation and its Restaurants Care program. The fund supports emergency assistance for restaurant workers facing illness, injury, or natural disaster and has been used to help those affected by COVID-19.
• Bob Evans Farms Inc. has launched curbside pick-up at all of their locations.
• McDonald’s Corporation said they have seen a sales increase over the last month and they are planning on altering their limited menu to boost customer traffic after closing dining rooms due to COVID-19. The company is exploring adding a new chicken item and new baked goods to their breakfast offering which took the largest hit during the pandemic.
• Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment Inc. is planning to reopen company-owned Hard Rock Café locations with new safety standards. The company is calling the program SAFE + SOUND and will feature temperature checks, mandatory masks, and new sanitation procedures.
• Texas Roadhouse Inc. has ordered 12,000 sneeze guards to be installed in their restaurants.
• The Small Business Administration and Treasury Department have created new applications for loan forgiveness under the Paycheck Protection Program. The new forms are a response to the PPP Flexibility act which relaxed deadlines for loan forgiveness and benefited restaurants.
