Nintendo's New York Store Is Reducing Its Opening Hours To Combat COVID-19

Good. Better be as safe as possible.

I originally planned to take a trip there this week for the animal crossing launch.. but as things progressively got worse, and the fail to announce the RSVP, I knew it wasn’t gonna happen. I ended up canceling my train Wednesday which sucked but better safe than sorry. Still excited to pickup the game on Friday, either way it’ll be a blast (:

@Cevil Look at what's happening in Italy and rethink your sentence. Also, the number confirmed cases is 2700 according to John Hopkins
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

@Cevil Spoken like somebody who doesn't have an elderly father living in a nursing home, or a nephew in medical isolation because he has almost no immune system. Too many people in my family, and by extrapolation too many people in too many families, are at risk for literally dying for me to tolerate some j@({@§$ calling the situation nonsense.

@Cevil Death rate and contagion spread rate resembles Spanish Flu. That nearly upended civilization. Caution is fully warranted.

God, I can't wait for this panic and hysteria to be done and over with. It's one thing to be afraid - some degree of fear is healthy. Panic is not healthy. And it's wrecking the economy.

I can't believe some people still don't understand the gravity of the situation and continue to call the situation overblown or a panic. Taking careful responses to a PANDEMIC makes perfect sense people.

@LastJediKnight7 everyone will have their moment when they realize just how severe this is. Some later than others.

@LastJediKnight7 I know... Same in France, some people only realized how bad the situation was 3 days ago when the government decides to close schools and universities. And a few hours ago we learned ALL SHOPS (except grocery shops and pharmacies) are closed from Sunday until further notice. We have to stay home.

Only a matter of time before a lockdown in the USA too.

#shutdownNYC is trending on twitter and 2 NY lawmakers tested positive.

This may be a non-issue on their part if NYC goes the "shut down everything that doesn't sell medicine" route that some other countries are taking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/nyregion/coronavirus-ny.html

@frogopus i was thinking the same. Bad desicion.

@DinnerAndWine this disease causes one in five people to be hospitalised and around a quarter of those go on to die. Slightly more extreme been a common cold. Of course if you’re a fit and healthy child you’re probably be alright.

@Ooyah The death rate is 3.7 right now. Where did you get 6?

"we are working less to protect you, and our employees"

I fixed.

Hours reduction is done strictly for the company's bottom line and image and has nothing to do with keeping anyone healthy. It's a luxury item shop not a place of necessity. If they were truly worried about their employee's health they would close and keep everyone paid. Instead they are reacting to social pressure and a likely drop in foot traffic by condensing all the customers who may come into a smaller time window and pushing the employees to commuting in times closer to rush hour.

Good plan?

@DinnerAndWine You clearly haven't been reading any news. I'm a nurse, and it's the elderly who are dying from this, and the youths are spreading it rapidly.

So Nintendo are limiting the opening hours, meaning there will be more people in the store?? Makes absolute no sense.

@Ooyah look I understand that controlling the virus is priority but to say this won't wreck the economy is foolish. My city is losing 70 million in revenue for the college world series being cancelled alone. Sure if your business is large enough it will rebound from the lost revenue fine but there are a ton of smaller businesses around here that rely on the bump in revenue every year to make ends meet for their entire year. It may sound like a no brainier to cancel all events and have everyone stay home for the foreseeable future but unfortunately the situation isn't that simple. Again I understand that people's lives are more important than money. I understand that if the virus spreads further it will have a larger impact on the economy as a whole but realize people will lose their business over this.

@DinnerAndWine Another person who only thinks about themselves and not about how spreading this to the elderly will kill them!?! I'm shocked!

I think we're past the point of assuming this is not concerning.

Here is a better idea: Close down. Everyone should stay home.

@Ooyah yeah I agreed with you that if the virus spreads it will lead to a larger impact on the economy. I agree with you that we need to protect those that are high risk like the elderly. It's a tough situation for sure and there really isn't a correct answer here, it sucks. All I was trying to get at is to say that this won't wreck the economy is an incorrect statement. Do we have an answer for this to not have a large impact on the economy and keep people safe? Unfortunately the answer is no. Is it wise to take a hit now on revenue? Probably. The issue I have specifically with the college world series is why not indefinitely postpone and reassess the issue in a month or 2 instead of just canceling the whole thing? Again I'm understanding the seriousness of the situation but simply closing everything down may not be a viable option. I'm just stressed right now as half my family income comes from the service industry as my wife is a bartender. How will I pay for my mortgage if no one is going out? Again I'm not saying you are wrong

@frogopus Well no, since they are limiting the number of people allowed in the store. Decreasing the hours lowers the total number of people that go in the store in a single day, which decreases the likelihood that an infected person comes in.

@Muddy_4_Ever the spanish flu only targeted people with blood type 0 which they got hit the worst during that time.

The bad news that a non-American Nintendo fan could get out of this is that if a Direct drops this month, then we're not getting the epic Nintendo NY reactions.
The good news in this case is that we'd still be getting a Nintendo Direct.

Of course, I'm joking just to defuse the situation a bit.

@AlexSora89

I am sure a Non-American fan has other worries such as not getting sick.

Also as a non-New York Nintendo fan, those people not getting sick would be very good news to me.

@DinnerAndWine you are one cold mother trucker

@Ooyah all good no need to apologize. Stay safe

This by far isn't the first store reducing its hours, so I'm not surprised. Better safe than sorry.

I understand a lot of the precautions being put in place in order to protect those more vulnerable and to help prevent medical centers bring overtaxed. What I don't understand is the knee-jerk panic, discrimination, and hoarding (outside of areas that are or will be under active quarantine) by some that prevents others who actually DO need such supplies from obtaining them. Am I concerned? Yes. Ramping up my own hygiene routine even more than it already was? Definitely. But I don't see the point in freaking out. There are some unknowns, but this isn't the plague.

In some cases, I think postponement other than outright cancellations for economic, athletic, academic, etc. purposes would make more sense; many jobs, student merits, and so forth have been affected negatively. Then again, this is an unprecedented situation where there aren't many easy answers.

NYC seems to be getting closer to shutting down "all nonessential personnel" so whether they are open or not, there aren't going to be too many people in that store at any hour.

My guess is a lot of people in that store are tourists, and those numbers seem to be shrinking as well.

I predict that w/in 2-3 days this article gets updated, or there's another article, saying the store is closed until further notice. Maybe by the end of today.

I'm in the suburbs and in the past hour all schools were notified they'll be closed 2 weeks and my sons Kummooyeh class is canceled until further notice. People thought sports shutting down was the ending, but it looks more like the beginning now.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/15/these-retailers-are-closing-stores-to-slow-coronavirus-outbreak.html

Eh.., only takes one customer to infect everyone. Not that the infection is bad. It's the flu.

I wonder if digital game sales are up on all platforms because of Coronavirus. I know online multiplayer games are seeing a lot of traffic.

Sounds counterproductive to me. If you reduce opening hours, that means those that do want to visit will all have to do it in a reduced time frame, which means more people in the same place within that now limited time frame.

Just a measure to make it look like they're doing something, rather than a real concern on their part. Meh.

Well Nintendo Directs are cancelled "for the unseeable future".

Possibly?

@DinnerAndWine. You poor ignorant child. You don't watch the news much do you. Thousands are Dying and being hospitalized. Hopefully you catch it and get how serious this is.

@DinnerAndWine

Yeah, you're 100% stupid. As a nurse, I can tell you it's not that simple. I also don't even understand what you're trying to say. The virus isn't that serious? If you think that you need to take a microbiology class or something and quit trolling people online.

@DinnerAndWine

Younger people need to stay home to not spread the virus. That's the dangerous part. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about. You have no credentials for anyone to take your seriously either.

Younger people also can't go anywhere or do anything right now. Younger people meaning anyone under the age of 50 by the way. Not just teenagers and little kids. There are food and supply shortages all around the world. Wake up and stop acting like this isn't a big deal because you're sheltered in your comfortable life. There are also younger people who are out of work and facing possible homelessness and utilities being cut off.

Retirement accounts pretty much stopped receiving any interest (including my own), which means they're not growing. Medical facilities can't get the supplies they need because of selfish people who hoard supplies (including my facility). It goes beyond your selfish unrealistic claims of this being a vacation for the younger population. A lot of people are scared.

Grow up.

@Cevil how do you feel about this comment today?