Nordstom Shutting Down Operations in U.S and Canada Stores

American luxury store chain Nordstom Inc. (JWN) has announced a temporarily closure of all its stores located in the United States and Canada as a way of coping up with its industry peers who have also closed their stores as a measure of minimizing spread of coronavirus.

Starting from March 17 the company will be shutting down for two weeks but in that period it will be catering for store employees pay and benefits.

However, during this closure period Nordstom will keep its apps and websites opened to track the situation and provides any updates. These websites include; Nordstrom.com, Nordstromrack.com and HauteLook.com.

In addition the company also trimmed down its financial guidance for the year 2020, further suspending a buyback program slated for this year.

“While February sales were in line with expectations, the company experienced a broad-based deceleration in customer demand over the past couple of weeks, particularly in markets most affected by the virus,” said the company.

Seattle serves as a key market for Nordstom as it operates 380 stores across 40 states in the United States.

The Seattle area is termed as the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak in the U.S with 904 coronavirus cases and 48 deaths confirmed across the Washington State as of March 16.

Cities across entire U.S has been taking necessary measures to curtail spread of this epidemic which is hitting so fast and so hard.