Lowe’s, other retailers closing early on Easter Sunday to give workers a break

Major retailers will reduce store hours or close entirely on Easter Sunday as several chains seek to give their employees a break amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Home improvement chain Lowe’s said in a statement that the stores will close nationwide on Sunday while all normally scheduled workers will have their hours shifted to another time. One worker confirmed to The Hill that they were asked to shift their normally-scheduled hours to one of their days off.

“We want to provide our teams with a much-deserved day off to spend Easter Sunday with their families and loved ones and recharge,” CEO Marvin Ellison said.

Target, Sam’s Club and Costco will also reportedly be closed on Sunday.

Grocery chains are also adjusting their schedules, with Trader Joe’s opting for a full closure on Easter Sunday and Giant Food releasing a statement saying it will operate stores on reduced hours.

“All Trader Joe’s Stores will be CLOSED on Easter Sunday, April 12th to give our incredible Crew Members a much needed day of rest,” reads Trader Joe’s website.

“This week, as many of us gather in whatever way we can to celebrate Passover or Easter, we will be giving our store teams a much-deserved break so they can spend extra time with their families. We will be closing all of our stores and pharmacies at 3pm on Sunday, April 12th,” Ira Kress, Giant Food’s interim president, said in an email.

Giant Food also announced further steps to battle the spread of coronavirus alongside the early closures, including limiting the number of customers allowed in-store at locations across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

“We have made, and will continue to make, countless difficult decisions to adjust our operations and make the shopping environment in our stores as safe as possible. From our perspective, none of our decisions have been perfect, but at the heart of every decision was our desire to do our best for our associates, our customers, and the communities we serve,” Kress said in the email

The coronavirus outbreak has caused governors across the nation to shutter nonessential businesses, while major grocery chains have remained open. In Minnesota, state officials took steps to declare grocery workers “emergency” personnel.

Updated at 4:25 p.m.