Walmart selling more shirts than trousers as people gear up for Zoom and Skype calls

‘These behaviours are going to continue to change and evolve as people get accustomed to this new lifestyle’

Walmart have revealed that they are selling more tops than trousers, amid uptake of video conference calls during the coronavirus pandemic.

With many people now working from home in the US, after it was advised to to practice social distancing, video conference applications like Zoom and Skype have become more popular.

Unlike in an office where dress codes are often mandatory, staff can get away with just dressing the top half of their bodies while on video calls.

In a live video chat with Yahoo Finance, Walmart’s EVP of corporate affairs Dan Bartlett, claimed that sales of tops are increasing now that more people are working from home.

“In one of your previous segments you were talking about people with Zoom, and doing those types of conferencing: We’re seeing increased sales in tops, but not bottoms,” he said. “So, people who are concerned, obviously, from the waist up.”

Mr Bartlett claimed that the trend would continue, with school and businesses closed for the near future.

“These behaviours are going to continue to change and evolve as people get accustomed to this new lifestyle, if you will,” he said.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the data is taken from sales in the US.

Video conferencing calls have become the new normal for many people working from home, but in recent weeks concerns over privacy and security have been raised.

Vice tech vertical Motherboard reported that when the Zoom app is downloaded onto iOS it sends information to Facebook along with a unique code allowing the company to keep track of the device.

Concerns were also raised in 2019 when it was reported that hackers would be able to spy on people using the app because of a bug in its code, before the company fixed the issue.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 92,932 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 1,380.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.