Home improvement store operators

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a bank's electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Thursday, May 21, 2020. Asian stock markets are mixed after Wall Street rose amid Chinese trade tension with Washington and Australia. Investors looked ahead to Friday’s meeting of China’s legislature for details of possible new steps by Beijing to stimulate its virus-battered economy.(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Asian stocks mixed amid China tension with US, Australia

May. 21, 2020 12:20 AM EDT

Asian stock markets were mixed Thursday after Wall Street rose despite trade tensions between China and Washington and Australia. Investors were looking ahead to Friday’s meeting of China’s legislature for details of possible new steps by Beijing to stimulate its virus-battered economy. Benchmarks...

FILE - In this March 22, 2020 file photo, customers wearing masks walk into a Lowe's home improvement store in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles. Lowe’s move to revamp its outdated online business in recent months paid off during the first quarter, as shut-in shoppers shifted to its online services for supplies for their do-it-yourself home projects during the pandemic. The nation’s second-largest home improvement retailer behind Home Depot saw an 80% increase in online sales for the quarter, reported Wednesday, May 20. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Lowe's retooled online business pays off during the pandemic

May. 20, 2020 12:29 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Lowe's Cos.'s move to revamp its outdated online business in recent months paid off in the first quarter, as shoppers shut in because of the pandemic shifted to online services for supplies for their do-it-yourself home projects. The nation's second-largest home improvement retailer behind...

A currency trader watches monitors at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Asian shares were mixed Wednesday as market players waffled between hopes for recovery as economies gradually reopen and worries over the havoc wreaked by the pandemic. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Asian shares mixed as virus worries counter recovery hopes

May. 19, 2020 11:50 PM EDT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares were mixed Wednesday as market players waffled between hopes for recovery as economies gradually reopen and worries over the havoc wreaked by the pandemic. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose nearly 0.9% in morning trading to 20,606.92 on expectations that a state of emergency...

A clerk assists customers at the garden center at a Home Depot store in Harrisburg, Pa., on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. As swaths of Pennsylvania prepare for a limited reopening Friday, some fed-up business owners are jumping the gun and have resumed serving customers in defiance of Gov. Tom Wolf’s shutdown order. Home Depot said Wednesday that

Cost of spreading virus weighed on Home Depot in early 2020

May. 19, 2020 6:56 AM EDT

ATLANTA (AP) — The cost of the spreading coronavirus pandemic dragged on profits early in the year at Home Depot. The world's biggest home improvement chain upped compensation for employees, extended dependent care benefits and waived related co-pays. That set Home Depot back by $850 million in pre-tax...

Empty tables for garden plants are under the framework for a greenhouse, Friday, April 24, 2020, in Cranberry Township. Some garden centers remain shuttered under Wolf's statewide March 19 order for

Garden centers, growers struggle in planting-season shutdown

Apr. 24, 2020 6:15 PM EDT

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — With outdoor planting season in full swing for much of Pennsylvania, many garden centers and the farms that supply their vegetable seedlings and flowers are buckling under the pain of Gov. Tom Wolf's orders to tens of thousands of businesses to shut down to contain the spread of the...

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, right, speaks at a COVID-19 briefing on Friday, April 3, 2020, in West Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Report: McMaster plans to have retail stores reopen Tuesday

Apr. 18, 2020 9:23 PM EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina retail stores and public beach access points that had been closed to halt the spread of the coronavirus will be allowed to reopen next week, The Post and Courier reported Saturday. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster will issue orders Monday to allow for the reopenings to...

Bothers Mark, left and Tim Ott stand together with Geraniums at Cleveland Ott & Son in Collegeville, a wholesale nursery that sells its flowers and plants to smaller garden centers in the region, most of whom are closed. Tuesday, March 24, 2020.

For many garden centers, virus outbreak brings silent spring

Apr. 4, 2020 3:05 AM EDT

GLENSIDE, Pa. (AP) — David Green had just hired seasonal staff last week and received shipments of plants and supplies for the big spring kickoff at the Primex Garden Center, when he was instructed to close his Glenside store because of the coronavirus pandemic. With thousands of dollars of perishable...