US: 31M Cases - 563.2K Dead - 23.5M Recovered
Worldwide: 128.3M Cases - 2.8M Dead - 103.5M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 279  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 275
*Red indicates change in total deaths


Current Mask Restrictions By State

Store Associates Frightened As Restrictions Are Relaxed
As Mask Mandates Lift, Retail Workers Again Feel Vulnerable

“It’s no different now than it was a year ago,” one Kroger employee said, as states like Texas and Mississippi end mask requirements.

Ms. Reece’s heightened anxiety is shared by retail and fast-food workers in states like Mississippi and Texas, where governments have removed mask mandates before a majority of people have been vaccinated and while troubling new variants of the coronavirus are appearing. It feels like a return to the early days of the pandemic, when businesses said customers must wear masks but there was no legal requirement and numerous shoppers simply refused. Many workers say that their stores do not enforce the requirement, and that if they do approach customers, they risk verbal or physical altercations.

“It’s given a great false sense of security, and it’s no different now than it was a year ago,” said Ms. Reece, who is not yet able to receive a vaccine because of allergies. “The only difference we have now is people are getting vaccinated but enough people haven’t gotten vaccinated that they should have lifted the mandate.”

For many people who work in retail, especially grocery stores and big-box chains, the mask repeals are another example of how little protection and appreciation they have received during the pandemic. While they were praised as essential workers, that rarely translated into extra pay on top of their low wages. Grocery employees were not initially given priority for vaccinations in most states, even as health experts cautioned the public to limit time in grocery stores because of the risk posed by new coronavirus variants. (Texas opened availability to everyone 16 and older on Monday.)

The issue has gained serious prominence: On Monday, President Biden called on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate orders to wear masks as the nation grapples with a potential rise in virus cases. nytimes.com

CDC Director is Scared of 'Impending Doom'
Biden calls on states to keep mask mandates, pause reopenings
President Biden on Monday urged state and local officials to reconsider lifting their coronavirus restrictions and to reinstate mask mandates that have lapsed as the U.S. faces an increase in cases.

"I'm reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate," Biden said at an event intended to highlight the rapid increase in vaccine eligibility. "Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier Monday warned Americans against letting their guard down against the virus, saying she felt a sense of "impending doom" over rising coronavirus cases.

"I'm going to lose the script, and I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now I'm scared," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Monday.

According to Walensky, the seven day average of new cases is around 60,000 cases per day, a 10 percent increase over the past week. thehill.com

America Braces for 4th Wave
New U.S. coronavirus cases rise by 12 percent
New coronavirus cases in the United States continued to rise in the past week, jumping by as much as 12 percent nationwide, as senior officials implored Americans to stick to public health measures to help reverse the trend.

The seven-day average of new cases topped 63,000 for the first time in nearly a month, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, while states such as Michigan, Vermont and North Dakota reported substantial spikes in new infections. The nation appeared poised for a fourth wave of illness even as vaccine eligibility is expanding in many states. washingtonpost.com

New York, New Jersey now lead the country in COVID-19 infections

Younger age groups fueling massive spike in COVID-19 cases in Michigan

Mass. coronavirus cases spike again, as push is on to ‘surge vaccine’ into state


Pharmacy Vaccinations Will More Than Double by Mid-April
Most Americans will be eligible for Covid vaccination by mid-April, Biden says

The federal government said it will expand the number of pharmacies administering vaccinations from 17,000 to 40,000 by mid-April.

At least 90 percent of adults in the U.S. will be eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations by April 19 as a string of states expand who can get the shots and thousands of additional pharmacies start receiving doses, President Joe Biden said Monday.

The federal government will expand the number of pharmacies receiving shipments of the vaccines from 17,000 to 40,000 by mid-April, he said. The White House estimates that as a result, 90 percent of adults in the U.S. will have vaccination sites within 5 miles of their homes.

At least 31 states have announced that they will open vaccinations to all adults in the coming days. New York said it would vaccinate anyone over age 30 starting Tuesday. Biden had previously directed states to make all adults eligible by May 1 and said the remaining 10 percent of adults would still be eligible by that date. nbcnews.com

Tracking Employee Vaccinations?
Almost Half of Companies Say They Won’t Track Employee Vaccination Status

A new Gartner study says 36% plan to have employees self-report vaccination status but will not require proof.

While the jury is still out on whether or not companies will require vaccinations, a recent study by Gartner found that nearly half (48%) of large global organizations will not track the vaccination status of their employees. The study, conducted with 227 HR leaders on March 16, found that only 8% of survey respondents reported that they will require employees to show proof of vaccination.

The same Gartner Workplace Reopening Amid Vaccine Rollout Webinar Poll also showed that among 258 HR leaders, 45% expect their workplace to reopen in 3Q21, while nearly one-quarter (24%) are planning for their workplace to reopen in 4Q21. ehstoday.com

Northgate Market checks employees' health — via its time clocks
Northgate Market is using its time clocks to make sure its employees and vendors are in compliance with COVID-19 health and safety policies.

The Southern California grocer has deployed a thermal temperature reading and health scanning solution that is integrated in the time clocks across its 41 supermarkets and distribution center. The solution, Logile’s Health & Temperature Scanner, clears employees to work their scheduled shifts. chainstoreage.com

New COVID Vaccines Needed?
Mutations could render current Covid vaccines ineffective in a year or less, epidemiologists warn
Mutations of the coronavirus could render current vaccines ineffective within a year, according to a majority of epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists surveyed by the People’s Vaccine Alliance.

The survey of 77 experts from some of the world’s leading academic institutions across 28 countries found that almost a third gave a time frame of nine months or less. Fewer than 1 in 8 said they believed that mutations would never render the current vaccines ineffective.

Two-thirds thought that we had “a year or less before the virus mutates to the extent that the majority of first-generation vaccines are rendered ineffective and new or modified vaccines are required.” cnbc.com

All Minnesotans 16 and older eligible for COVID-19 vaccine

How long will the coronavirus vaccines protect you? Experts weigh in.

Covid-19 Vaccination Cards Are the Only Proof of Shots, Soon an Essential


COVID Has Remade NYC
Remote Work Is Here to Stay. Manhattan May Never Be the Same.

New York City, long buoyed by the flow of commuters into its towering office buildings, faces a cataclysmic challenge, even when the pandemic ends.

A year after the coronavirus sparked an extraordinary exodus of workers from office buildings, what had seemed like a short-term inconvenience is now clearly becoming a permanent and tectonic shift in how and where people work. Employers and employees have both embraced the advantages of remote work, including lower office costs and greater flexibility for employees, especially those with families.

Beyond New York, some of the country’s largest cities have yet to see a substantial return of employees, even where there have been less stringent government-imposed lockdowns, and some companies have announced that they are not going to have all workers come back all the time.

In recent weeks, major corporations, including Ford in Michigan and Target in Minnesota, have said they are giving up significant office space because of their changing workplace practices, while Salesforce, whose headquarters occupies the tallest building in San Francisco, said only a small fraction of its employees will be in the office full time.

But no city in the United States, and perhaps the world, must reckon with this transformation more than New York, and in particular Manhattan, an island whose economy has been sustained, from the corner hot dog vendor to Broadway theaters, by more than 1.6 million commuters every day. nytimes.com

Remote Work Due to COVID-19 Triggers Compliance Issues

Female Heads Of FCC, FTC, NTIA Talk Remote Work, COVID-19
 

The Disruptive Very Competitive Future of Grocery Retail

By Tony D'Onofrio, Global Retail Influencer & Prosegur's CEO & Managing Director, Global Retail Business

Throughout my retail career, I have closely followed the growth and progress of the grocery sector. Partially this is the result of actually having worked in a supermarket for 9+ years across many departments.

The importance of this retail segment is reinforced by Deloitte in their annual 'Global Powers of Retailing Report'. The 2020 edition found that fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) which includes grocery, drug, mass merchants, and convenience represents 66.5% of the total retail sales for the global top 250 retailers. Also interesting from that research, this sector tends to least globalize operations and recorded in 2020 the lowest composite net profit margin at 2% of sales.

The pandemic has become a brutal accelerator of digital transformation trends for all retail and grocery has not been immune from the disruption. Being classified as an essential business was a tremendous advantage for food, drug, convenience, and mass merchandise retailers. During the lockdowns, nearly $300 billion in wealth was transferred from general merchandise / hospitality to FMCG retailers. Read more here

Chains with the Most Closures
Hundreds of Subway, Dunkin', and Burger King locations closed in 2020
No sector of the industry was safe. Closures affected fast food, fast casual, casual, and fine dining. Subway closed more stores than any other large chain examined by Dataessential, closing out the period with 1,557 fewer stores, a 6.6% loss. Dunkin' lost a net 559 stores, the report said.

Even fast food staples were hit by the pandemic. Burger King closed 319 locations, while McDonald's closed 173. However, that only amounts to a 1.2% loss for McDonald's, which still has well over 13,000 locations. Baskin Robbin's, Hardees, and Steak N Shake each closed restaurants, while Little Caesar's bucked the positive trend for pizza chains this year, closing 120 locations.

Some restaurants did manage to open new locations. Domino's came out on top, opening 358 new stores. This isn't necessarily surprising: pizza and wings were hailed as early winners in the pandemic as Americans increasingly ordered from brands that were already set up to accommodate delivery, like Papa John's and Wingstop. businessinsider.com

Huawei Accuses U.S. of Breaking the Law
Huawei CFO Claims US Extradition Bid Violates International Law
The United States’ extradition bid for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou was made in violation of international law and Canadian cooperation with the request puts it at risk of breaking international law as well, the tech executive’s defense team claimed Monday in Canada’s British Columbia Supreme Court.

In the third week of scheduled abuse of process arguments in Vancouver, international law expert Gib van Ert, a newcomer on Meng’s team, told Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes the U.S. is violating international law by wrongfully extending its criminal laws to a foreign person’s alleged conduct in a foreign country against a foreign bank.

The U.S. claims Meng defrauded HSBC Bank by allegedly misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship to an Iranian subsidiary that was reported to be in violation of American sanctions on telecom equipment sales in Iran. Meng alleged to have given a PowerPoint presentation in August 2013 to an unnamed bank executive, the flashpoint at the heart of the American case against her. courthousenews.com

Banks reportedly seize equity stake in Mall of America
Lenders are taking equity stakes in Mall of America after its owner defaulted on the multibillion-dollar American Dream development, according to reports in the Financial Times, Bloomberg and other media.

Triple Five Group put up a potential 49% stake in Mall of America, and another mall in Canada, as collateral on debt used to finance the American Dream project in New Jersey, according to public documents.

Triple Five handed over Mall of America stakes to lenders, including J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, after American Dream ran into cash flow problems, a spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg. Representatives for Mall of America and Triple Five did not immediately respond to Retail Dive's requests for comment. retaildive.com

Kroger Foundation donates $1 Million to those affected by
Roundy’s warehouse shooting
he Kroger Foundation has donated $1 million to Roundy’s Supermarkets to support those who are affected by the recent shooting at the store’s Oconomowoc distribution center. Roundy’s announced the donation Monday in a news release, saying the funds will go toward the needs of victims, their families, survivors and the community.

“The entire Roundy’s family continues to mourn the loss of those who were victims of this tragedy,” said Michael Marx, president of the Roundy’s Division of Kroger. One hundred percent of the donations administered by the National Compassion Fund will go directly to the victims and their families. nbc15.com

Nike severs ties with 7 more retailers including Urban Outfitters and Macy’s

Sephora hiring 150 people with disabilities at its Utah warehouse