Even with stay-home order, Nebraska Furniture Mart to stay open as ‘essential’ business
Note: Nebraska Furniture Mart announced Tuesday evening it would close its stores at 7 p.m. Friday.
Nebraska Furniture Mart, the largest retail store in the region, will keep its doors open even after much of the Kansas City metro goes on lockdown in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, residents of Kansas City and Johnson, Jackson and Wyandotte counties were ordered to remain at home except for activities “essential to the health and safety” of themselves, family members or friends.
Violations of the order are considered misdemeanor offenses, punishable by a $500 fine and up to six months in jail, officials said. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said the mandate was needed as many businesses, including gyms and massage parlors, kept their doors open even as the COVID-19 virus continued its spread.
But even as the nearby Legends Outlets closed stores for at least 30 days, leaders of Nebraska Furniture Mart say the giant store that sells everything from beds to televisions to lawn mowers is an essential business. Wyandotte County’s stay-at-home order carves out many exceptions for businesses deemed essential, including hospitals, grocery stores, gas stations, auto shops and hardware stores.
“Nebraska Furniture Mart provides ’products needed for people to work from home’ like electronics, desks, laptops, and so forth, so they would be considered essential under this order,” said David Reno, spokesman for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas.
Still, other stores that sell similar items have decided to close or limit customer access, including the Furniture Mall of Kansas in Olathe.
As of Sunday, electronics giant Best Buy had closed its stores to customers, while still offering a contactless curbside pickup service for online orders. Likewise, IKEA announced it would close all 50 of its U.S. stores, including the one in Merriam, saying “unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.”
The three metro locations of Factory Direct Bath, Kitchen & Lighting Gallery, which sells a variety of appliances, are open by appointment only, according to the store’s website.
Major hardware chains like Lowe’s Home Improvement and Home Depot, which also sell household appliances, remain open.
Nebraska Furniture Mart’s decision to remain open has irked some customers and employees.
Even Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas tweeted about its decision to stay open: “God help me if I get another question about Nebraska Furniture Mart,” he wrote, noting it was up to government leaders across the state line in Kansas City, Kansas.
Several employees independently contacted The Star complaining that their employer was putting their health at risk by remaining open. None wanted to go on the record for fear of retaliation, but they said the store has depleted its stock of hand sanitizer supplies — while their commission-based wages rapidly decrease amid declining sales.
Owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Nebraska Furniture Mart’s Facebook page has been inundated with complaints.
“CLOSE DOWN YOUR STORE!! YOU ARE PUTTING EMPLOYEES AT HIGH RISK,” wrote one person.
“Trying to capitalize on a pandemic?” another wrote. “You’ve made the list of places I will never in my life spend another penny at.”
Others urged customers to contact county and state officials asking for the store to be closed for the sake of employees and shoppers.
The company is well aware of the controversy. But Tony Boldt, president and chief operating officer, downplayed the criticism in an email to employees obtained by The Star.
“People are going to take shots at us,” he wrote. “Unfortunately that is the world we live in. I can assure you that I care much more about our employees and the public we are serving than I do about what uninformed people think our intentions are.”
In his note, Boldt likened the furniture giant to hardware stores, which have been deemed essential operations in many jurisdictions with stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders.
“Even in California where they have shut down the state, Home Depot is considered an ‘essential business’ and they are open,” he wrote.
He said the company was guided by three priorities: fulfilling the needs of the public by continuing to provide items “they deem as essentials”; ensuring it could “cover our staff financially and with benefits as long as possible;” and keeping employees safe and healthy.
Boldt said employees who were uncomfortable coming to work could take time off by using their accrued paid time off. Those without any PTO could take off without losing their positions, but would not receive pay, he said.
“Anyone who thinks that we are ‘staying open for the money’ has no idea the long-term cost of this,” the executive wrote. “We simply want to stand by our customers and our staff in one of the most critical times in our worlds (sic) history. That’s it!!!!”
Andy Shefsky, spokesman for the Omaha-based chain, told The Star that the company is actively monitoring updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local public health officials and executives are also meeting daily to discuss the most recent information on the pandemic. He said the company has boosted cleaning efforts and placed hand sanitizer at checkout lanes — though he said some of those have been stolen.
He acknowledged he’s heard comments that the chain is acting “greedy” by staying open.
Compared to a grocery store, Nebraska Furniture Mart might not seem essential, he said. But customers are buying refrigerators and freezers in order to store perishables. They’re looking for electronics to help work from home and for their children to connect with schools. Others might need a lift recliner to help an elderly parent who has just moved in with them.
He pointed to the company’s reduced hours and its contact-free delivery and pickup programs — all designed to help keep crowds down during the pandemic.
“Now is not the time to go window shopping,” Shefsky said. “But we want to remain open for as long as customers have needs.”
Public health officials in Omaha have warned that customers of Nebraska Furniture Mart’s flagship store there may have been exposed on March 15 by someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
Nebraska Furniture Mart reportedly employs more than 1,000 people in Kansas City, where its retail and distribution operations span more than 1 million square feet.
On Sunday, the store was bustling with hundreds of cars in the parking lot, though traffic was significantly lower than the typical weekend rush.
A sign on the doors urged customers to practice social distancing and stay at least six feet away from others. But inside the store, few signs of the global pandemic were evident.
Customers flipped through samples of vinyl and tile flooring. They picked up smartphones and tested computers. While the dine-in area of the store’s Blind Box BBQ area was closed, several people still congregated around the counter to order food or sip beers. Some customers acknowledged they were there just to browse and kill time.
“I thought we were supposed to be on lockdown,” said one teen-aged boy who walked around with a pack of friends.
While sales were slow, staff in the store said two items were going fast: deep freezers and refrigerators. Many refrigerators were out of stock and the store had to move washers and dryers into a section marked for standalone freezers after it sold out of those appliances completely.
On Monday, the chain announced several new safety measures online. Those include the new contact-free drive-through pickup option, limiting store hours to 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and no longer requiring signatures on employee tablets for purchases.
The local store has also dropped the requirement that salesmen wear ties and it has started offering free coffee to employees from the in-store coffee shop, an employee said.
“As always, Nebraska Furniture Mart remains committed to the health and safety of our community,” Boldt wrote online Monday, “and we will take whatever steps are deemed necessary to remain open for as long as possible so that our friends and family members can get the things they need during these trying times.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 11:13 AM.
