H-E-B announced Saturday that it will be limiting the hours in which it is open to the public.
The grocery chain reportedly implemented the policy Friday night with stores in the Houston area, and has now made it effective to all H-E-B-owned stores in every city.
As H-E-B focuses on serving Texas, shortened hours allow H-E-B Partners to work diligently overnight to fully prepare the store for customers during the day. Today, all H-E-B stores will implement temporary modified hours. Tonight (3/14) all of our stores will close at 8pm,
— H-E-B (@HEB) March 14, 2020
The news release states that its stores' thorough restocking takes place overnight, and the change in hours allows employees more time to effectively prepare for the next day.
Services in floral, deli and the bakery will also be affected, as resources are redirected from those departments to other parts of the stores.
H-E-B, as with all grocery stores nationwide, has seen its supplies depleted daily since panic about COVID-19 began. The policy would reduce the amount of customers taking supplies off of restocking carts before employees are able to put stock on shelves.
The new hours will be in place until further notice.