Walmart temporarily shuts a dozen stores following winter storm in the East Coast

(Reuters) -Walmart on Wednesday said it had temporarily closed about a dozen stores due to scattered power outages on the East Coast following a massive winter storm that has put more than 90 million people under high wind and flooding advisories.

A company spokesperson said the store closure number fluctuates and the winter storm has had minimal impact on Walmart's business with people stocking up on staples, snacks and baby food.

As of Tuesday, the storm has knocked out power to about 811,000 homes and businesses in 12 states ahead of a brutal freeze expected to blanket the eastern half of the United States starting this weekend.

A Home Depot spokesperson said one New Jersey store closed a few hours early on Tuesday night but was back open Wednesday morning, while Lowe's said its stores in some areas were operating on backup power but remained open. Lowe's added that it was routing additional critical response supplies like tarps, generators and sump pumps to the areas impacted by the storm.

Burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill was seeing adjusted store hours and isolated closures sporadically but nothing with a major impact, a company spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Target and supermarket chain Kroger said they were not seeing any impact on store operational hours at this time.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shweta Agarwal)