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Yahoo Finance quotes John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, a subsidiary of Amazon, as stating, “COVID was a tremendous accelerant for online grocery shopping and people that have never done it before did it for the first time.” He added, “But once the pandemic is fully behind us, however long that will take, the surge in online grocery will slow.” Mackey believes that shoppers will resume normal patterns after the COVID crisis has ended. His boss, Jeff Bezos may however disagree with this prediction.
Before the advent of COVID, many chains were upgrading stores to provide a destination shopping experience. This is evident in the new Wegman’s locations in the Mid-Atlantic and especially in North Carolina where the company has proposed four additional stores in addition to the Morrisville NC. store opened during late August.
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John Mackey |
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 When the COVID vaccine is administered to a high proportion of U.S. residents and if incidence rates decline to a level that encourages a feeling of safety, shoppers will return to stores. The habits of generations will not be extinguished by the relatively short-term restrictions imposed by COVID. There will be a pent-up demand for personal shopping. Although hybrid and omni- channel sales of groceries will be part of the retail picture for a few years, shoppers will return to stores to experience the benefits of personal selection and to satisfy the inherent need for socialization and human interaction.
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