Supermarkets and others selling food, health and cleaning productsare offering special shopping hours for seniors and others who are most vulnerable to Coronavirus.
In NYC that includes Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Key Food, Fairway, Stop & Shop, Duane Reade/Walgreens.
The special hours are before the stores open to the general public, with shelves which have been re-stocked overnight and freshly sanitized surfaces such as shopping cart handles and check-out areas.
Some special shopping hours are daily, others limited to one day a week.
Also, many stores now have earlier closing hours, to restock and sanitize, and some pharmacy chains, such as CVS, have reduced hours.
As with everything related to this pandemic – it’s complicated.
If you know of a store or chain not on our list,
please email us
info@nyconthecheap.com
so we can add it in an update.
See also
NYCOTC list of Discounts for Seniors
NYCOTC Coronavirus info hub page
Whole Foods
All locations in the US and Canada are open to customers aged 60 and over, and those with compromised immune systems, one hour before opening to the general public.
In New York City, Whole Foods locations open at 8am in Manhattan, 9am in Brooklyn.
Opening hours in other parts of NYC and in NJ and Conn. vary by location.
Whole Foods Market stores in the UK are open one hour early for customers who are 70 and older one hour before opening.
The stores will also close up to two hours early to give team members extra time to restock shelves and sanitize stores, it said.
In a statement, Whole Foods Market says
“We have temporarily closed self-serve areas of the store, including our hot bars, salad bars and antipasti bars. Other seated venues in our stores will offer takeout only, and any indoor or outdoor café seating is closed.”
Trader Joe’s
UPDATE: Several locations in the NYC and Tri-State area will be closed for two days between April 20 and the end of the month for special cleaning and sanitizing.
- Locations include Downtown Brooklyn, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Chelsea and Union Square.
- See the full list and specific dates here.
New special shopping hours for seniors and vulnerable are every day 8am to 9AM daily.
Crew Members maintain separate line outside the front door for senior/vulnerable customers to expedite shopping.
New store hours are 9am to 7pm.
Note from NYCOTC Editor Evelyn Kanter –
My nearest Trader Joe’s on the Upper West Side had a 15-30 minute wait for seniors/vulnerable by 8:30am, and the line for “regular” shoppers was already around the block and more than one hour wait.
Seniors/vulnerable should be on line at 7:45am for early admission with the shortest possible wait.
Key Food, Food Emporium, Gala Fresh, SuperFresh
Key Food, which also owns other local supermarket chains with locations throughout all five boroughs and on Long Island, has set aside the first hour of each shopping day for seniors and those with compromised immune systems.
The hours vary widely, starting at 6am, 6:15am, 6:30am or 7am, depending on the store and location.
Check the Key Food Family of Stores website for the store nearest you and its special shopping hours.
Note that not all Key Food locations are included.
Mine on the Upper West Side is not, and there are no special hours for seniors/vulnerable.
photo courtesy Supermarket News
Fairway
Despite its current bankruptcy proceedings, Fairway is open to shoppers aged 65 and older as well as those with “increased susceptibility to serious illness” from 8am to 9am, Monday to Saturday.
Fairway also said it would increase the frequency of sanitizing high-traffic areas in-store, as well as allow customers to continue paying via the chain’s mobile checkout app.
UPDATE – April 7th.
According to Crain’s:
In a surprise, Fairway Market’s store in Harlem is set to close unless a last-minute bidder emerges for the location.
Fairway agreed to sell the popular uptown grocery store along with four other Manhattan locations to Village Super Market for $70 million when it filed for bankruptcy in January.
But Village has changed its mind and elected to buy the parking lot surrounding the Harlem location but not the store itself, according to federal court documents. A Village official did not reply to requests for comment.
Morton Williams
Locations are offering the hour between 7am and 8am exclusively for senior citizens and immuno-compromised shoppers.
In a statement, the chain reports that all supermarkets are sanitized multiple times on a daily basis, including but not limited to:
- shopping wagon and hand basket handles,
- entrance and exit door handles,
- frozen food door handles,
- salad bar glass guards,
- restroom and stall door handles,
- credit card PIN pads and ATM machine screens,
- self-service coffee handles and surfaces,
- staircase and escalator (if applicable) hand-rails,
- café tables and chairs.
C Town
Special senior shopping hours are 8am to 9am, opening to the public at 9am.
CVS
Hours are now 9am to 9pm daily in New York City.
Special hours for seniors or vulnerable are 9am to 10am, although some stores are open earlier, from 8am.
Hours for pharmacy vary by location, but generally are 9am to 5pm.
Duane Reade/Walgreen’s
Special hours for seniors and vulnerable are 8am-9am weekdays. Some locations also have special shopping hours on weekends.
Depending on location, pharmacists are on duty 9am to 5pm or 6pm.
Regular shopping hours are 9am to 9pm daily.
Gristede’s, D’Agostino’s
No information available.
Gristede’s is owned by John A. Catsimatidis, a NYC-based billionaire businessman, radio talk show host and former GOP candidate for NYC Mayor, who took over family-run D’Agostino’s in 2019
Zabar’s
No special hours for seniors, but the longtime Upper West Side food and housewares store is extending its 10% discount for seniors from one day a week to daily.
Stop & Shop
Locations are offering 90 minutes daily of shopping for their “most vulnerable” customers, between 6am and 7:30am.
The grocery chain has two locations in Brooklyn — one downtown in the Atlantic Center and one Flatbush
In a statement: “During those hours, we look forward to welcoming customers who are age 60 and over as well as customers who may have weakened immune systems and are more susceptible to COVID-19.”
Dollar General
This chain is reserving the first hour of each shopping day for seniors.
Since opening hours vary by location in NYC and nationally, check your favorite location for its reserved shopping hour.
TD Bank
The first hour of full-service operation is set aside for seniors and those “most at risk” for Covid-19. at branches which have traditional bulletproof glass separatingaccording to the sign in the branch near me in Manhattan.
Those new hours are Mon.-Sat., 9:30am to 1pm in what’s described as the “lobby” of branch locations, at branches which have traditional bulletproof glass separating tellers from customers, and 9:30am to 1pm at drive-through locations.
At branches with “open” configuration, banking now is by appointment only, which is a serious imposition for seniors and the vulnerable.
TD is no longer open on Sundays, as it was before the Coronavirus pandemic.
One day a week special shopping hours:
Walmart – Tuesday only
All locations are hosting what the chain is describing as a “Senior Shopping Event” on Tuesdays only for customers aged 60 and older from March 24 to April 28.
This special event is one hour before the store opens to the public, and includes its pharmacies and vision centers.
Target – Wednesday only
The first hour of shopping only on Wednesdays to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions
Stores close at 9 p.m. for cleaning and restocking.
Sam’s Club – Sunday only
Associate Appreciation Shopping Hours are Sunday from 8am to 10am and starting April 19 and includes those on front lines of COVID-19; healthcare workers and first responders to provide what Sam’s Club promotes as “the best possible experience”.
Evelyn Kanter is a native New Yorker who has written for the NY Times, NY Daily News, NY Post, New York Magazine, and is a former on-air reporter for WCBS Newsradio 88 and WABC-TV Eyewitness News.
Evelyn Kanter also is the author of several NYC and Hudson Valley guidebooks, including my latest, 100 Things to Do in NYC Before You Die.
Purchase autographed copies by emailing evelyn@evelynkanter.com
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