N95 Masks at Home Depot

N95 Masks Home Depot

Early in the pandemic, Home Depot made the choice to stop selling N95 masks in favor of donating them to local hospitals and healthcare workers. If you are in need of N95 masks, you can buy them at Supply Hawk for the best price online or anywhere.

Home Depot used to sell N95 and KN95 masks as part of their routine catalog, as they are useful and necessary tools for people working in fields such as construction and welding, as well as firefighters and sanitation workers. However in April 2020, Home Depot, along with other large retailers, issued a stop-sale of all N95 masks. If you go on their website or into a store, you will see that N95 masks are not available online or at any of their locations, although they may still be included in their product listing. The reason for this is that Home Depot is taking part in the national call to prioritize healthcare workers for the supply of N95 masks and other PPE. Starting early in the pandemic and through 2020, many hospitals and care workers faced extreme PPE shortages, with many reusing masks or using any kind of face covering they could find. This is why Home Depot felt it necessary to redirect their PPE supplies to hospitals, healthcare workers, and first responders.

Home Depot does now offer a variety of other face masks including 3-ply masks and cloth masks, but they don’t offer surgical or procedure masks that meet ASTM standards. They do sell a KN95 mask, available online and in some locations.

What is Home Depot doing to help combat COVID-19?

In addition to supplying healthcare providers and first responders with masks and PPE, Home Depot has taken a number of steps to help combat the coronavirus:

Social Distancing: Home Depot has limited the number of people allowed in their stores at one time to allow for proper social distancing and so that customers can feel comfortable shopping in their stores. With an average square footage of 100,000, stores are only allowing 100 people in at a time. For this reason, it can be difficult to get into a store in some places, and many locations have been known to have long lines of people waiting to get in.

Home Depot has also canceled major promotions that often lead to large crowds, such as Black Friday, springtime sales, and other promotional offers. Sales like this lead to high volumes of customers with single-minded focus on getting the deals they want, often at the expense of safety precautions or consideration for the general welfare.

Safety Precautions: Home Depot has asked all customers and employees to wear masks at all times when they are in the store. They have set up protective plexiglass shields at all checkout and customer service centers, and they’ve reduced their store hours to allow more time for cleaning and sanitizing. They have also placed signs around the stores to remind customers to physically distance, in addition to periodic verbal reminders to all shoppers.

While Home Depot is not requiring its employees to undergo COVID-19 testing, they have supplied their staff with non-medical-grade face masks and required their employees to conduct temperature checks before reporting to work. They’ve also asked that all employees stay home if they feel ill. If someone at a Home Depot does test positive for COVID-19, the store will undergo extensive disinfection before reopening.

Supporting their Staff: Home Depot gives its employees 40 - 80 hours of paid time off depending on an employee’s employment status, as well as up to 14 days of payment for employees required to quarantine. For employees who contract coronavirus, they are paid their normal wage until doctor’s release. 

Supporting the Community: In addition to providing healthcare workers with PPE, Home Depot has implemented price freezes on certain essential, high-demand items to ensure people can access the supplies they need at an affordable price. They are also expediting their sourcing of these more essential items.