‘Essential’ Label Stirs Business Frenzy to Make Trump’s List (1)

Pet stores are considered essential. So are landscapers. Hair salons aren’t. Neither are shops that sell books or clothes.

The Trump administration’s labeling of industries considered “essential” is quickly creating winners and losers as coronavirus shuts down swaths of the economy. It’s also setting off a lobbying frenzy among industries -- from battery makers to poultry producers -- angling to join the ranks of hospitals, supermarkets and other businesses whose continued operation has been deemed necessary.

But because the designation by the Department of Homeland Security is advisory only, it’s left a patchwork of rules from state to state. California ...