Essential Stores Share How They Are Keeping Safe During Covid-19
By: Sarah Arnold
As Covid-19 continues to progress, grocery stores are taking precautionary measures to keep their employees and customers safe. Food shopping is an essential outing for people and many stores have instilled new protocols during this time.
According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 900,000 grocery employees at chains such as Kroger and Safeway, says that more than 1,500 grocery store workers throughout the United States have tested positive for Covid-19. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends a guideline for people to stand at least six feet apart from one another while in public. Most grocery stores and pharmacies have placed colored tape on the floor so that customers can easily see where its safe to stand. Stores have also taken an extra precaution to sanitize counters, door handles and carts more often to keep the spread of germs down to a minimum. Heinen’s manager, Marie Albergo, says that they started taking cleaning measures at the very beginning of March when Coronavirus news first broke out.
“We have placed tape all around the store, especially by the registers, so that people know exactly how far six feet is,” said Albergo. “We have also put up plexiglass at all the registers to limit social contact as much as possible.”
Albergo says that they also recommend customers to not pay with cash and use alternative payless options such as, Apple Pay. Heinen’s also offers parcel pickup, where the customers pull up their cars and the employees load groceries into their cars for them. Although, this is something that has always been available, Heinen’s has implemented this as a mandatory feature of the store. They have also hired more than 20 new employees to help keep up with sanitizing and cleaning. According to datausa.org, essential stores have employed more than two million people around the United States and according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average essential store employment increased 0.7 percent in March.
“We hired new people to stand at the front of the store to sanitize all the carts after each use,” said Albergo . “The new employees also sanitize the cash registers, shelves, grocery belts and the bagging area as well.”
Albergo says that the employees have been receiving less tips than usual while working parcel. She says that is possibly due to the fact that people are just carrying less cash with them. Albergo also has noticed that customers don’t even want to take their receipt with them anymore. She says that many people bring a plastic sandwich bag with them and have the cashier stick it in the bag for them so that they aren’t touching it.
Non-grocery stores, such as Drug Mart, have taken new precautions for its employees to keep them safe during their shift. Craig Kwasniewski, manager at Drug Mart, says that they began requiring all of their employees to wear masks and gloves at the beginning of April. They have also banned breaks to be taken in the break room for the time being and urged employees to sit in their cars to keep less people out of the building.
“We care about our employees and their health,” said Kwasniewski. “We need workers so we want to make sure they feel safe coming in. To do this, we have a team each shift that goes around and cleans frequently touched surfaces every half hour and we have also increased the air exchange in the building.”
Kwasniewski said that at one point they tossed the idea of taking employees temperature upon arriving for their shift back and forth, but have since decided against it.
“Unless it becomes a CDC guideline, we won’t do it,” Kwasniewski said. “When it first came out that people can have the virus without symptoms, we thought maybe, but then quickly realized that taking their temperatures can be an invasion of privacy.”
Many people are going the extra mile and have decided to not even leave their house to grocery shop. That’s when companies like Instacart come into play. According to instacart.com, its sales growth rate was 10 times higher in the last two months and in some states such as, California, New York and Washington, the rates have increased more than 20 times.
“When I drop off people’s groceries I make sure to always have gloves and a mask on,” says Tina Boyden, an employee for Instacart. “I usually just leave all of their bags on their front porch, most people come out and disinfect everything before bringing them in the house.”
With the increase in demand for groceries to be delivered, Instacart added a new feature to their app called “Leave at My Door.” This allows the delivery person to be able to leave the bags at the door without having the person being present. According to Instacart, this is an effort to reduce contact between people, keeping both the shopper and the delivery person safe.
Most stores will continue to use these safety regulations even as the Covid-19 cases decrease. These guidelines will help to flatten the curve and help prevent a potential second wind of the virus once things go back to normal.
