Commack Walmart closed Tuesday for cleaning

The Walmart on Crooked Hill Road in Commack. Credit: Danielle Silverman
Walmart temporarily closed its store in Commack for cleaning Tuesday as Long Island contends with a high rate of coronavirus cases, the discount retailer said.
“Out of an abundance of caution," a spokesman said, the store closed to "allow extra time for a third-party specialist to further sanitize the store." Employees also were to restock shelves during the closure, he said.
The store at 85 Crooked Hill Road is scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m. Wednesday with an hour of shopping reserved for senior citizens, a demographic at higher risk of contracting the virus, he said. The senior shopping hour is normally on Tuesdays.
The store is scheduled to reopen to all customers at 7 a.m., the spokesman said.
He declined to say why the Commack store was the only one of Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart Inc.’s 13 stores on Long Island – 12 Walmarts and one Sam’s Club – to be closed for the cleaning.
“I can say that we take into account a variety of issues when deciding to proactively close a location for a day, including positive COVID cases, staffing levels, in-stock levels in the store and other factors,” the spokesman said.
About 100 people work at the Commack store, he said.
When it reopens Wednesday, Walmart will conduct health screenings and temperature checks on all employees, who will be provided with facemasks and gloves, the spokesman said.
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has not been involved in a COVID-19 investigation at the Commack store, nor has it "made any recommendations outside of the NYS guidelines regarding the closing of this facility," the agency said in an email Tuesday.

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