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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF APR 27, 2020 Online shopping comes to the rescue at this time of staying home – something that may last![]() ![]() Are you or your family shopping more online now?
![]() Post a quote from coverage of the pandemic's local or state impact.
![]() Read any other technology news and summarize the topic.
Online shopping has surged, naturally, as Americans sharply reduce or eliminate store visits for an obvious health safety reason. Target's digital sales more than doubled in March and are up 275% in April, the chain says. Amazon has added 175,000 workers since March to handle a deluge of orders and Walmart has hired 200,000. Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods delivery services, which have more orders than they can fill, started wait lists for new customers. A first wave of e-commerce this spring focused largely on groceries, cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, face masks, latex gloves and paper products. Toilet paper became the No. 1 item on Walmart's site, accounting for 3% of total sales in March – up from 1.3% normally. Hair clippers, hair dye kits, baby products and home office supplies also are popular. Now many online buyers shift to entertainment products such as books, jigsaw puzzles, card games, toys and other diversions as they adjust to life in quarantine. Web orders from local grocers and restaurants for curbside pickup or delivery also are swelling dramatically. New shopping routines are likely to outlast the emergency, many experts predict. "I think online grocery shopping will persist," says the chief executive of Unilever, which owns over 400 food brands. At the National Association of Convenience Stores in Alexandria, Va., research vice president Lori Stillman says: "There are a lot of people trying and learning new behaviors, and not all of them are simply going to go back to the way it was."
Front Page Talking Points is written by
Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2025
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