Formula 1 will be racing this weekend, at least in the virtual world, with three main events scheduled on Saturday and Sunday.
On Friday, Formula 1 announced the launch of its “F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix Series”, with a series of events in the coming weeks that will replace the sport’s cancelled or postponed races.
But two other platforms have jumped on the F1 virtual bandwagon in a bid to keep fans entertained.
Here’s a chronological run-down and a timetable of this weekend’s sim meetings:
Festivities will kick off on Saturday with the second edition of The Race’s All-Star Esports Battle.
When: Saturday at 5pm UK time (1pm EST – 6pm CET). The event will unfold with a succession of qualifying heats culminating in a 30-minute final that will feature 15 pro drivers and 5 sim racers.
Venue: the race will be held on Indy’s road course on rFactor2
The field: past and present F1 stars will include Max Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg, Juan Pablo Montoya, Nelson Piquet Jr., Formula E stars Antonio Felix da Costa, Neel Jani, Maximilian Gunther and a selection of sim racers, including Rudy van Buren and jimmy Broadbent.
Channel: Youtube
Sunday’s first event of the day, hosted by Veloce Esports, will be the ‘Not the Bahrain GP’ invitational, the second round of a series imagined by reigning Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne and which races on Codemasters’ F1 2019.
When: Sunday at 6pm UK (2pm EST – 7pm CET). The event will feature qualifying and a half-distance race.
Venue: Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit.
The field: Lando Norris, Stoffel Vandoorne and Nicholas Latifi will headline the event that will feature a high-ed mix of pro driver and gamers.
Channel: Youtube, Twitch
F1 and Esport’s fans will enjoy a double dose of Bahrain thanks to the first round of F1’s ‘Virtual Grand Prix Series’ which will also run on the sport’s official F1 2019 sim game.
When: Sunday at 8pm UK (4pm EST – 9pm CET). A standard qualifying and race format shall apply.
Venue: Bahrain obviously.
The field: with the exception of Nicholas Latifi, there haven’t been any confirmations yet from F1 regarding participating drivers. But the sport’s main teams won’t be delegating any of their chargers. However, Ferrari has announced that its interests will be represented by Scuderia juniors Robert Shwarzman and Dino Beganovic, while Red Bull’s line-up will feature British Olympic gold medalist and part-time racer Sir Chris Hoy and Austrian Philipp Eng.
Poland is turning its attention from external energy security to changing its energy mix.
For a pipeline that was so controversial when it was on the drawing board, the official opening of Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany on 6 September generated little debate in the Polish media.
There were good reasons for the relative calm, and not just because the pipeline was already a reality. Poland has moved on since the sharply worded battles over the Russian-German Nord Stream deal.
In 2009, the government itself signed a gas-supply deal with Russia that will last until 2037. It is now building a terminal for liquefied natural gas on the Baltic coast, enabling Poland to import gas by ship from (above all) Qatar. It is also expanding gas-storage facilities, so that, by 2012, about 20% of annual gas demand, rather than 12%, can be stored. EU support and funding will also connect Poland with Czech, Slovak, and Baltic gas and electricity grids, increasing Poland’s sense of security.
There has also been a more general change: rather than dwelling on dependence on Russian gas, newspapers focus on the potential of other sources of energy. As Jeremi Mordasewicz, an expert on economic policy with Lewiatan, a lobby group for employers, puts it: “I don’t think that we can avoid a change in the energy mix.”
At the centre of the public’s attention is shale gas – an unconventional source of gas with the potential to end the need to import Russian gas. Production is not expected to start before 2015, but the first pilot effort to extract shale gas began in late August and exploration is picking up momentum each month.
Mordasewicz argues that the government should focus on other energy. “Renewables and gas are going to grow thanks to the private sector,” says Mordasewicz. “The government should work harder to get a properly sized nuclear programme off the ground.”
Nuclear power plans
The government is pressing ahead with nuclear power, regardless of the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. Its plans, though, remain vague – it will commission one plant, and maybe two.
For Mordasewicz, this is inadequate. “We need four or five nuclear power plants,” he says. Part of his argument is based on demand in a fast-growing economy and part because Poland currently produces no nuclear power at all.
Instead, more than 90% of its energy currently comes from coal.
Coal is, then, inevitably the bedrock of all debate about energy policy. And Maciej Kaliski, the deputy economics minister, suggested recently that this will always be the case, telling Parkiet, a business paper, that “Poland is bound to coal”.
The government is certainly behaving that way. It has made clear that new deposits of lignite coal – thought capable of providing energy for hundreds of years – will be tapped as soon as possible. And state-owned energy companies – the market’s dominant players – are pressing ahead with plans to build new coal-fired installations.
The challenge to coal’s position comes from the EU’s climate and energy policies. According to Maciej Gomólka, the Poland country manager at Carbon Warehouse, a Prague-based brokerage and analysis firm, government circles in Poland tend to think that the EU is transforming coal from an important asset to a major liability for Poland.
That observation is borne out by Poland’s stance at the EU level. It is currently challenging in the courts the EU’s rules on the distribution of free carbon-dioxide allowances to energy-intensive industries, and it is going to great lengths to ensure that all power plants developed in 2013-20 will get free allowances.
The government has prudential reasons for protecting coal. There are, for example, questions marks about the potential of shale gas, about the costs of the nuclear programme, and about securing broad public support for nuclear power.
But Gomólka also sees tactical calculations in Poland’s stance. “Poland thinks that the EU’s fight against climate change without support from other major economies doesn’t make sense. So it’s trying to win maximum concessions while hoping that the climate-change policy will relax over time,” he adds.
However much (or little) EU policy relaxes, Poland will need to increase its use of green energy – and, to boost that, the government plans this autumn to overhaul the legal environment in which the renewable energy industry operates. Renewable sources currently meet just 7.1% of Poland’s energy use; the government’s 2020 target is 16.8% (its EU-set target is 15%).
The centre-right government recognises that there is a public appetite for a greener economy: it is giving prominence to renewable energy (as well as to shale gas) in its campaign for elections in October.
Boost for gas?
For investors and business people too, the idea of moving away from coal is no longer the unimaginable catastrophe it once was. This may particularly boost gas, perhaps the cheapest and quickest way to reduce dependence on coal. A study by the Polish office of Deloitte suggests that, with the end of free carbon emissions in sight, investors may opt to build gas-fired plants.
The change is unlikely to be quick, but, by current standards, the changes will be substantial. Figures from the economics ministry suggest that the share of electricity from gas-fired power plants will rise from the current 2% to more than 5% in 2020.
Commission sets up taskforce to oversee Greek reforms
Horst Reichenbach will lead group providing technical assistance to Greece.
Horst Reichenbach, a vice-president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and a former director-general of the European Commission, has been appointed to lead a taskforce to help Greece carry out economic reforms.
The taskforce will provide technical assistance to Greece to ensure that it complies with the programmes it has agreed with the EU and the International Monetary Fund in exchange for international financial assistance. This includes providing advice on the country’s privatisation programme.
Reichenbach joined the EBRD in August 2005 as secretary-general. He has been vice-president for risk and resources since April 2007. Before joining the bank, Reichenbach was director-general of the European Commission’s enterprise and industry department from 2004-05. He was director-general for personnel and administration from 1999-2004 and for consumer policy and health protection from 1997-99.
Reichenbach will take up his new position in September.
Thomas Mirow, the EBRD president, said he regretted Reichenbach’s departure but said he had accepted it “in view of the outstanding importance of this role in leading the taskforce at the European Commission”.
The task force will also include Jörgen Holmquist, a former director-general for the internal market, and David Wright, Holmquist’s deputy. The two had to leave the department when Jonathan Faull was installed as director-general at the insistence of Gordon Brown, who was then UK prime minister.
United Nations, India and Japan among senior positions filled.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has appointed a top Austrian diplomat to represent the European Union at the United Nations in New York as part of a large round of appointments of European External Action Service (EEAS) envoys.
Ashton today announced the appointment of 25 heads and deputy heads of EU delegations around the world, 16 of which come from member states’ foreign services.
Thomas Mayr-Harting, currently Austria’s ambassador to the UN, will represent the EU at its headquarters in New York. Mayr-Harting has been Austria’s permanent representative to at the UN for the past three years. He was also president of the UN Security Council in 2009. The Austrian will replace Pedro Serrano, who has been acting head of the EU delegation in New York since January 2010.
Mayr-Harting will be supported by Ioannis Vrailas, a Greek diplomat, who has been appointed as deputy head of the EU’s delegation in New York. Vrailas is currently Greece’s deputy head of mission at its embassy in Washington, DC.
Jean-Maurice Ripert, a French diplomat, who is currently the UN’s special envoy for aid to Pakistan, has been appointed as head of the EU’s delegation to Turkey.
The appointments continue the build-up of the EEAS which started its work last year.
Gender balance
Fact File
Name // Nationality // Previous diplomatic position // Title // Delegation location
Thomas Mayr-Harting (Austrian, member state), head of delegation, New York, USA
Gary Quince (British, European Commission, director for ACP countries,DG DEVCO), head of delegation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
Joao Cravinho (Portuguese, member state), head of delegation, New Dehli, India
Fransisco Sandomingo (Spanish ambassador to Peru, member state), head of delegation, Managua, Nicaragua
Jean-Maurice Ripert (French, member state), head of delegation, Ankara, Turkey
Margit Zanathyne Martin (Hungarian, member state), head of delegation to UN agencies in Vienna, Austria
Maria Van Gool (Dutch ambassador to Romania), head of delegation, Bógota, Colombia
Jean-Michel Dumond (French ambassador to Nigeria), head of delegation, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Paola Amadei (Italian, head of EEAS delegation in Eritrea), head of delegation, Kingston, Jamaica
Maeve Collins, (Irish ambassador to Vietnam), deputy head of delegation, Tokyo, Japan
Richard Jones (British, member state), head of delegation, Bern, Switzerland
Detlev Brauns (Germany, member state), deputy head of delegation, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi (Italian, head of division for west Africa, EEAS), head of delegation, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tomas Ulincy (Czech, member state), head of delegation, Khartoum, Sudan
Franz Jessen (Danish, head of division for China, EEAS), head of delegation, Hanoi, Vietnam
Traian Hristea (Romanian ambassador to Ukraine), head of delegation, Yerevan, Armenia
Jean-Francois Cautain (French, EEAS), head of delegation, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Abdoul M’Baye (French, EEAS), head of delegation, Suva, Fiji
Maria Spatolisano (Italian, DG Trade, European Commission), head of delegation, Paris, France
Stella Zervoudaki (Greek, EEAS), head of delegation, Guatemala, Guatemala
Ropert Kopecky (Czech ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan), head of delegation, Georgetown, Guyana
Laurence Argimon-Pistre (French, head of EEAS delegation to OECD and UNESCO), head of delegation, Rome, Italy
Aurelia Bouchez (French, member state), head of delegation, Astana, Kazakhstan
Ioannis Vrailas (Greek, member state), deputy head of delegation, New York, USA
Alain Holleville (French ambassador to Niger), head of delegation, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Ashton said the appointments reflected goals to make sure all member states were fairly represented as well as achieving a gender balance. Top posts, as head of delegation or as deputy head, are now spread among 24 of 27 member states. Only 31 of 149 management positions at EU delegations are held by women, however.
Ashton said that was “not good enough” adding she was “determined to make further progress” on a fair balance in coming recruitments.
Ingeborg Grässle, a German centre-right MEP who is a member of the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee, criticised today’s appointments, saying that they were a “payback for inadequate German personnel policy” in European foreign policy.
Grässle said only one German national, a deputy head of delegation, was appointed in today’s round. She contrasted how France had done, with three national diplomats and four French nationals from the EEAS and the European Commission being appointed heads of delegation. Italy, the UK and Greece each had two heads of delegation, she said.
Grässle also accused Ashton of using “different criteria” for appointments. She said that officials from EU institutions had found it harder than officials from national administrations to be appointed to senior positions. She noted that 16 of the 25 heads of delegation posts appointed today had been filled by officials from member states compared to 13 out of 29 a year.
The MEP also noted that Ashton was creating a higher proportion of senior posts in the EEAS than in the EU institutions. She said that 7.7% of posts in the EEAS were at director level compared to an average of 3.4% in the European Commission. Posts at director-general level accounted for 3.4% of posts in the EEAS compared to 1.6% in the Commission, according to Grässle.
She did, however, acknowledge that Ashton had acted on her promise to increase the number of women appointed to senior posts in the EEAS.
The former Chelsea midfielder believes it is too early to pass judgement on the Portuguese in what is proving to be a testing spell in north London
Jose Mourinho cannot be expected to turn Tottenham’s “cruise ship” around “on a sixpence”, says Joe Cole, with patience being urged in north London with the former Chelsea boss.
A man who has enjoyed considerable success on a Premier League stage in the past was snapped up by Spurs when the decision was taken to part with Mauricio Pochettino.
Mourinho was considered to be the perfect fit for a club that has been starved of tangible success for more than a decade.
More teams
The Portuguese has, however, found out the hard way that there are no quick fixes to be found at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Questions are now being asked of whether he has lost his touch, with silverware bids ended before football shut down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Cole – who savoured Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup triumphs under Mourinho at Chelsea – believes it is too early to be passing judgement on a proven winner.
He believes there is a big job to be overseen at Spurs, with time required in order to get everybody moving in the right direction once more.
The ex-England international told PA Sport: “Jose has gone into a difficult situation.
“In the media in particular there is a lot of anti-Jose, people who are very quick to jump on Jose’s back, especially for someone who has been as successful as him.
“You need to look at the job in perspective, I think it had run its course under Pochettino. I think the team wasn’t playing well, it needed a change.
“But it’s like turning a cruise ship, you can’t just turn it on a sixpence, it takes time. He needs time, he needs to bring the right players in.
“I think the relationship with Daniel Levy is important, if Levy gets him the players he wants and gives him time I think it will be a success for him.
“It’s just how every time Spurs lose a game… Spurs were losing games under Pochettino, players weren’t playing well.
“I think some of the players may have run their course at Tottenham. They are all great players but sometimes your time is up. They are in a rebuild situation.”
Mourinho has vowed to maintain his record of delivering trophies whether he has been, but has claimed that there will be no elaborate overhaul of his squad when the next transfer window opens.
The EU’s failure to involve civil society in promoting peace
If promoting democracy, peace and human rights is the paramount goal of the European Union’s foreign policy, supporting civil society is one of the main means to that end. But “Civil society, conflicts and the politicisation of human right”, based on research funded by the European Commission, suggests that the EU falls short of effectively using the potential of civil-society groups in conflict settings. Many of these shortcomings are self-inflicted, through the EU’s own choices.
In different ways, the four case studies in this book – on Israel/Palestine, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey’s Kurdish question – all show that the policy effects of the EU’s support of civil society have been negligible or, in some instances, negative.
Lack of grassroot input
The EU has a tendency to set policy agendas from above, without systematic input from grassroots groups. This has led to the emergence of a non-governmental sector on the ground that responds to EU calls for proposals rather than to society’s needs. This is especially evident in Bosnia and in Palestine, where a thriving NGO industry – urban, professional and civic in nature – has sprung up to service the EU’s priorities, with little impact on the wider society. This, naturally, has also diminished the impact of EU policies, making it appear bureaucratic, and ignorant about realities on the ground.
Engagement with conflict
The core finding of this collection is in the editors’ essay on “redefining European Union engagement with conflict society”. In this chapter, they write that unless the EU “exerts effective pressure on state actors to engage in political reform, thus altering the political opportunity structure in which civil society operates, EU policy is unlikely to induce conflict transformation through civil society”.
This means, in effect, that it is up to governments to open up the political space in which civil groups can do their work, and that governments will often do so only when prompted from outside. This is a point that deserved more attention.
Fact File
Civil society, conflicts and the politicisation of human rights
By Raffaele Marchetti and Nathalie Tocci (265 pages)
The Commission’s proposal could cause damage to the fisheries sector, not help save it.
I have carefully read European commissioner Maria Damanaki’s draft proposals and examined the consequences for fisheries and European fishermen. Even if some of the ideas point in the right direction, a number of the Commission’s proposals are unacceptable because they would quite simply mean the inevitable end of the entire European fisheries sector.
It is clearly essential to preserve fishing stocks, but this cannot be the sole objective. The commissioner’s approach seems dogmatic. The reform has to make it possible to protect supplies, while also taking into account the competitiveness of the fisheries sector, fishermen’s incomes, consumer expectations and the dynamic character of coastal regions. We will not let this draft pass in its current state.
The first unacceptable point is the establishment of individual, transferable quotas. Over time, they would put small-scale fishing in the hands of large industrial fisheries and lead to a monetisation of the sector, at the expense of responsible, small-scale fishing that creates jobs, directly and indirectly. I cannot accept the implementation of such a system. It is based on an ultra-liberal approach whose negative effects on the economy we can clearly see from the financial crisis. The second objection is to the immediate and total ban on discards, which makes no sense in terms of preserving the resource. Our aim is a reasonable exploitation of stocks that protects young fish. We should improve the selectivity of fishing gear and fishing instead of getting involved in a senseless theoretical argument.
A third point of disagreement is the aim of moving to maximum sustainable yield by 2015. The 2010 Nagoya conference on biodiversity confirmed the conclusions of the Johannesburg conference that the aim should be to achieve this by 2020, rather than 2015. We must also insist on maintaining relative stability, which must remain an inviolable principle in order to ensure equity among member states.
However, I think the implementation of long-term management plans is the start of a solution to the problem of rebuilding stocks, and that strengthening the role of producer organisations is a significant advance. These ideas are to the credit of Damanaki’s proposals.
But overall, the commissioner is adopting an ideological approach. We need to move to a pragmatic approach, reconciling the interests of fishermen with scientific expertise. We have to take responsible decisions and not forget that every time a vessel is scrapped, it cannot be brought back. We also have to defend our own interests, both national and European. We already import 80% of the seafood we consume. It would be absurd from a political, social, environmental and food-safety point of view to destroy our fleet and give even greater preference to imports. It would be wrong to think that putting in place individual quotas or a total ban on discards would solve all the problems.
Now we begin a period of reflection and exhange of views on the Commission’s proposals. As one of the MEPs responsible, I will strive to modify these proposals in order to produce an ambitious reform that takes into account all aspects of this dossier, which is essential for the future of a sector that has been neglected too often.
French centre-right MEP Alain Cadec is a vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee.
Each of the Spanish top tier’s clubs have selected a representative for this weekend’s event, the proceeds of which will go to Covid-19 charities
While the majority of leagues around the world have been suspended due to measures put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, La Liga football continues to go ahead this weekend in the form of a charity tournament on FIFA 20.
Organised by Spanish video game streamer Ibai Llanos, the influencer invited each of the Primera Division sides to nominate a single player to represent their teams in a 20-club tournament that runs from Friday March 20 to Sunday March 22.
Once each club had nominated their player, a draw was made – in a rather unorthodox manner, it should be said, with Llanos pulling names from a cooking pot whilst donning his house robe – to see which of the Liga stars would be facing off against each other.
Three matches took place on Friday, with former Arsenal forward Lucas Perez booking his place in the next round after his Alaves side beat Celta Vigo – represented by Kevin Vazquez – 4-1, with Perez’s in-game character claiming all four strikes.
The other matches saw Leganes’ Aitor Ruibal overcome Real Valladolid’s Pedro Porro 5-3, and Espanyol’s Adrian Embarba beaten 6-3 by Eibar’s Edu Exposito.
Still to play are Ruben Garcia (Osasuna), Sergio Reguilon (Sevilla), Gorka Guruzeta (Athletic Bilbao), Carlos Clerc (Levante), Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad), Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid), Sergi Roberto (Barcelona), Jason (Getafe), Borja Iglesias (Real Betis), Manu Morlanes (Villarreal), Carlos Soler (Valencia), Jose Antonio Martinez (Granada) and Marco Asensio (Real Madrid).
The tournament serves not only to bring entertainment to football fans amid mass self-isolation protocols, but also to help raise money in battling the novel Covid-19 coronavirus, with all proceeds – currently in the thousands of Euros – all being donated to charity.
And while all of the matches can be watched via Llanos’ Twitch account, they can also be viewed through La Liga’s official social channels as well, with the Primera Division making the match-ups available through Facebook.
The second round of fixtures kick off at 5pm UK (1pm US ET) on Saturday, with Sunday seeing the quarter-finals (5:30pm UK/1:30pm US ET), semi-finals (7:30pm UK/3:30pm US ET) and the grand finale (8:30pm UK/4:30pm US ET).
The Serie A side have donated equipment to a hospital in the Italian capital to aid the effort to stop the spread of the virus
Roma will donate ventilators and beds to a hospital in Rome to aid the fight against the coronavirus pandemic after players and staff have agreed to give up a day’s salary.
The salary donations on top of individual contributions to the club’s campaign amount to more than €200,000 (£185,000/$213,000).
Roma have raised around €460,000 (£424,000/$491,000) for the Lazzaro Spallanzani Hospital in the last week, which has been one of the nation’s most important centres in the effort to beat the Covid-19 spread.
Roma will use some of the funds to buy three intensive care ventilators, five pulmonary ventilators for sub-intensive care and eight new intensive care beds for the hospital.
Earlier this week, the club delivered 13,000 FFP2 masks to hospitals in the Italian capital, along with 120 bottles of hand sanitiser.
“The players and the coaching staff wanted to do something very meaningful for the city and the people suffering in this country,” Roma CEO Guido Fienga said.
“At moments like this, it’s important that we all take on our responsibilities and do what we can to help. Whether it’s the president, our players and staff, our fantastic former players and all our fans, from Rome and elsewhere, everyone who has contributed has helped pay for these new intensive care ventilators, which will help save real lives.
“We’re not giving up though and now we want to raise even more money, surpass our €500,000 target and buy more essential hospital equipment.”
Italy replaced China on Thursday as the country worst hit by the spread of the virus, having suffered more fatalities since the outbreak began.
Friday saw Italy suffer the biggest daily rise in deaths from Covid-19, taking the number up to 4,032 fatalities, while there have been 47,021 confirmed infections.
The government has called in the military to help enforce the lockdown which has been issued across the country.
Retailers that deem themselves an essential service during the novel coronavirus outbreak are taking new measures in stores, like installing Plexiglas shields at cash registers and limiting the number of customers, to protect shoppers and staff from COVID-19.
Grocers, which have seen demand spike as coronavirus fears prompt people to flock to stores and stockpile supplies, made moves to give their staff time to restock shelves and clean stores, as well as other measures.
Empire Co. Ltd., which owns the Sobeys and Safeway chains, started to install Plexiglas shields at some stores Thursday night. It plans to roll out the protection to every store as soon as possible.
“We are announcing a series of new measures to further enhance the stepped-up sanitation protocols at our stores,” wrote Empire Co. Ltd. president and CEO Michael Medline in a statement posted on the Twitter account for Sobeys.
“We tested Plexiglas cashier shields as yet another safeguard to protect our teammates and customers from this terrible coronavirus.”
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The shields “stand out as a strong safety precaution” among best practices the company looked at from around the world, he said.
The company will also reduce store hours to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. to allow staff more time for new sanitation protocols and to restock, he said. Staff will be required to wash their hands every 15 minutes and cashiers will disinfect their tills more frequently.
The company will also add floor markers to queuing areas to help customers maintain proper social distancing of two metres apart.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. announced similar changes Thursday, reducing operating hours to give staff time to clean and rest, CEO Galen Weston said in a video posted to the company’s Twitter account.
Loblaw is prepacking more products to reduce touching, and will limit the number of customers allowed at a time in its busiest stores to help shoppers and staff with social distancing.
“These changes will lead to a very different shopping experience, but they are necessary,” he said.
Metro Inc. announced Wednesday it would temporarily shorten its hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily for most of its brands to allow staff to restock shelves, clean and rest.
Best Buy closing some stores
Other retailers have also tweaked operations to help prevent spreading COVID-19 while people shop.
Best Buy Canada said it will temporarily close five of its stores, in addition to all its mobile locations located in malls. The company has more than 175 stores across the country, according to its website.
The company also closed a store in Ajax, Ont., after an employee was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to its website. The employee is in quarantine, other staff were asked to self-isolate, the store is being cleaned, and the company is trying to contact customers who visited the store earlier in the month.
It has closed some additional stores to everyone but customers who reserved something online to pick up in the store, which can be obtained through a window pick up service.
For most of those that remain open, hours have been reduced to between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. and the number of people allowed in is limited.
“We are offering limited services within the store,” according to its website. “Customers arriving at a store to find a specific product will be escorted by an adviser with the goal of completing an expedited visit while adopting social distancing guidelines.”
Mark’s, SportChek shut down
Best Buy is not accepting cash payments and shifted in-home services to virtual consultations.
The company is choosing to stay open to help fill Canadians’ technology needs amid the pandemic, CEO Corie Barry has previously said. It has found people are requiring products to help them run a small business, shift from an office to their home, educate their children outside of school as well as store and prepare meals.
Canadian Tire Inc. decided to close its non-essential retail banners, including Mark’s and SportChek. It reduced hours for Canadian Tire retail stores.
The company’s precautions include more store cleaning; encouraging staff to undertake strong hygiene practices; offering hand sanitizer and wipes throughout stores; and providing staff with masks and gloves, reads a letter from CEO Greg Hicks dated Thursday.
“We are doing the best that we can to support you and your local community, while at the same time doing our part to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” Hicks wrote. “With all of us working together, and supporting one another, we will get through this.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 20, 2020.