Walmart closed 415 stores and Sam’s Clubs and put together an interactive map to help Texas shoppers determine if their neighborhood location was open or not.
And if you didn’t see Amazon delivery trucks in your neighborhood Monday, the online retailing giant closed its delivery stations in Dallas-Fort Worth to protect its drivers from navigating treacherous roadways.
Businesses faced with unprecedented nasty weather across Texas, and elsewhere around the southern U.S., had to decide Monday if worker safety outweighed expectations that they’d be open for customers needing food and other essentials.
“We assess the status of our facilities and will continue to operate as long as it is safe to do so,” Walmart said in a statement. Its closings spanned 10 states, including Texas.
Walmart recommended customers check an interactive map it’s continuing to update before venturing out. Some closed stores continued to operate curbside pickup and delivery.
The prospects of a second snowstorm makes decisions trickier during what’s shaping up to be a week of sub-freezing temperatures.
“The safety and well-being of our employees, customers and the drivers who deliver packages are our No. 1 priority,” said Amazon spokesman Daniel Martin.
Amazon will continue monitoring the storm’s effects in Texas, and directed customers to check order status on its app or amazon.com. Martin said Amazon will continue to take orders, but the delivery promise date may be delayed depending on the item and location.
Grocery stores, one of the main stops for people riding out the storm, were open Monday but planned to close early.
Kroger, which usually keeps stores open until 1 a.m., was closing its doors at 8 p.m. Central Market’s Dallas-Fort Worth stores were shutting down at 6 p.m. Kroger will reopen stores at 8 a.m. Tuesday, two hours later than usual.
Empty shelves and freezer cases, reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic, are temporarily back at grocery stores.
Deliveries from the warehouse to stores took place Monday at a much slower pace, said April Martin, spokeswoman for Kroger. Most big chains have their own truck fleets but supplement with third-party drivers and vehicles.
Kroger’s backup generators also weren’t working in many locations due to the rolling blackouts, Martin said.
Tom Thumb and Albertsons stores were closing at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, said spokeswoman Christy Lara. The plan is for stores to open at 8 a.m. Tuesday, “if it’s safe for associates and customers,” she said. Some Tom Thumb and Albertsons stores weren’t able to open on Monday due to power outages.
Target closed 20 stores across Texas on Monday and closed early at about 20 other locations in Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi. Stores will reopen “as soon as it’s safe,” the retailer said in an email. It’s updating hours on Target.com.
Dallas’ two main malls were closed Monday. NorthPark Center did not open. Galleria Dallas initially told shoppers to call individual stores before the mall shut down around noon.
Golden Triangle Mall in Denton also closed, along with Stonebriar Centre in Frisco and Firewheel Town Center in Garland.
It wasn’t just retail feeling the storm’s impact.
Bell closed its Fort Worth-area facilities, beginning with its 11 p.m. shift Sunday, and they’ll remain closed until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Bell designs and makes helicopters and autonomous delivery pods and works with Lockheed Martin on the V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor aircraft built for the U.S. Army.
Downtown Dallas Inc. CEO Kourtny Garrett said many of the central business district’s hotels, including The National and the Omni, were open and at least a couple restaurants were operating. The Flying Horse Café and the Crafty Irishman put their employees up in hotels.
Hotels also were helping to house first responders. Dallas Police Department staff were staying at the Lorenzo Hotel. And Garrett said most of the calls from downtown’s 12,000 residents were to report homeless people without shelter.
As far as electricity, Garrett said downtown towers were asked to turn off their lights. Reunion Tower confirmed that its signature skytop ball of lights would go dark Monday night. AT&T and its new Discovery District will also go dark, a spokesperson confirmed.
It’s not clear how much energy savings the city’s skyscrapers can generate, she said, but Downtown Dallas Inc. asked for nonessential lights to be turned off to assist the state’s stretched power grid.
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