Ensuring customer supply, adjusting protocols to maintain store operations and supporting suppliers with more frequent payments are all part of the strategies supermarkets are applying in this new business environment.

Maintaining store operations in this scenario of health crisis and the spread of covid-19 is a real challenge for supermarkets in Central America. For example, in Guatemala, until May 19th the chain La Torre reported that in six of its stores, some employees had tested positive for the medical tests that establish if people are carriers of the virus.

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Given this situation, the company has had to close the establishments for some days to carry out intensive disinfection work.

In this line, Walmart Costa Rica executives assure that before the beginning of the sanitary crisis, they focused on two work aspects, first in becoming a safe supplier for their clients and second, in building a plan that would allow a safe operation.

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Manrique Ugalde, Walmart’s vice president of operations for Central America, told Elfinancierocr.com that preventing employee infection and ensuring the lowest possible cost of supply have been key to maintaining store operations.

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Ugalde added that they collaborate with their suppliers with “… weekly payments to the smallest to help them face the challenges to their cash flow that the crisis brings. This program has been very well received.”

See article “La Torre reports cases of Covid-19 in six supermarkets” and “Resilience in the Pandemic: This is how Walmart reacts to the coronavirus crisis in Costa Rica“.
Stay Safe!!