2020 Hometown Heroes

2020 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS May 14, 2020 Page 59 and community.” The Lincoln IGA is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Calling the local Wal-Mart, the person we spoke with said management could not speak with reporters. She did give a phone number for the Walmart media room. We called that number and got a message to go to the Walmart website and access the special media portal. We went there, followed the instruction and received a message that the page we were looking for was not available. Without information from the company, we recall a recent visit to Walmart where we noted first that the Lincoln Wal-Mart is in the middle of a reset in its grocery department. This started with a full reset of the store from lawn and garden to clothing and more, well before coronavirus came into the picture. The reset appeared to be winding down and coming to an end in the grocery department. For the last couple of visits, we noted a lot of empty shelves, but couldn’t actually determine if it was due to a run on food, or lack of stocking while the store is being remodeled. We did note that there were some limits on items, such as toilet paper. In that aisle on that particular day there was fewer than a dozen four-packs of one particular brand and a note on the shelf saying customers should only take one package. Also on that day the dairy department was sparse and some basic items such as flour and sugar were not available. Also on that day, the produce department was very sparse and the frozen pizza aisle was sold out. There were empty boxes on the shelves indicating that perhaps the lack of product was due to buying. But, because we weren’t able to speak to anyone, we can’t say for sure how much of this was a run on food due to coronavirus and how much was due to the reset. Late last year/early this year the local store did establish the online ordering for grocery products with outdoor pick-up. Every time we go into the store, we see the in-store shoppers, who are Wal-Mart associates filling totes with grocery items that will in the end be bagged up and set aside for the customer pick-up on the east end of the building. The Lincoln Walmart also has installed a lot more self-check aisles. These are not widely used by shoppers. However, we did give it a try and it wasn’t all that bad, and we had no worries about social distancing. Our word of caution there would be to take your own wipes and wipe down the key pad and touch screen before you start and after you finish. We did find a note on the Wal-Mart website about COVID-19 that said sneeze guards are being installed at the pharmacies, and signage is being placed to encourage social distancing around the store. On the Walmart-Lincoln Facebook page it did note that the store is not open 24-hours at this time. The store is listed as being open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. The reason for the overnight closure is to permit associates time to restock the shelves. Trying to reach out to Aldi in Lincoln we called the phone number listed on the google search for Lincoln. When we called, we got a pre-recorded message that said that no individual store numbers are given out and if there is anything anyone needs to know, go to their website. CONTINUED u