Whole Foods announced that in order to help meet increased demand, it is temporarily closing a few stores and converting them to fulfillment centers for online delivery orders. Stores in New York City and Baltimore have already made the transition, and San Francisco’s SoMa location remains open until 1:00 pm daily, after which time it converts to a fulfillment center. A store in Cincinnati converted to pickup-only in late March.
In addition, the Amazon-owned company, which has grocery pickup at about 80 stores, plans to expand that service to more than 150 locations in the coming weeks. It is looking to hire 75,000 more people, which is on top of the 100,000 employees it has hired since mid-March.
Whole Foods also said that there are plans to “launch a new feature allowing customers to secure time to shop,” which will give delivery customers a virtual “place in line.”