T-Mobile ramps up its fight against the spread of coronavirus by closing more stores
As highlighted by the Trump administration on Twitter yesterday, the President has no plans to order a national coronavirus quarantine or national shutdown at this time. Until that time comes (if it ever does), however, individual states and cities have already begun to take extreme measures meant to limit the spread of COVID-19, with schools closed in many places, large public gatherings prohibited, and residents in six counties surrounding San Francisco urged to "shelter in place."
The name of the game is "social distancing", and major tech companies are also committed to playing their key role in keeping as many people as possible safe in the comfort of their homes. To that end, T-Mobile initially decided to close all its "Un-carrier" and Metro stores located inside shopping malls, predictably expanding on these shutdowns effective immediately.
Mike Sievert, Magenta's current COO and future CEO after John Legere's scheduled departure on April 30, detailed all the new preventive actions in a letter published late Monday evening, announcing among others that "about" 80 percent of store locations will be closed from March 17 to "at least" March 31.
That's a slightly less drastic measure than Apple's decision to seal all its stores outside China on March 14, for instance, essentially mirroring Verizon's strategy of substantially "reducing the number of stores that remain open."
T-Mobile is calling the 20 percent of retail locations set to remain open a "critical mass" providing "important service to customers", and in order to ensure said service will reach the vast majority of the "Un-carrier's" subscribers nationwide, these stores are apparently "distributed across the country and designed to be within a 30-minute drive for most customers in each market."
You can locate the nearest such store using T-Mo and Metro's handy online tools, as you'd normally do, but keep in mind schedules will also be reduced to only eight hours a day (10 am to 6 pm local time for "most stores"). In case you're worried about employee rights during this time of crisis, T-Mobile claims the stores set to remain open over the next two weeks will only be staffed with workers "willing to come in and support our customers." Everyone else can stay home and continue getting a paycheck.
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