SALT LAKE CITY — It’s Monday afternoon and the downtown Smith’s Marketplace is pretty quiet. A couple dozen shoppers move quickly past empty shelves, seeking specific items and softly saying “excuse me” as they get too close to others. A few wear masks. An elderly man carries a bottle of hand sanitizer from home. At checkout, the cashier stands behind a plexiglass barrier and wipes down the card reader between customers. Most use self-checkout, standing on decals that mark 6-foot intervals of social distance.
This is shopping in a pandemic, which is playing out nationwide as chains and mom and pop shops try to protect workers, customers and their own fiscal viability. Grocery store workers suddenly seem heroic, risking their health to feed others. When experts talk about the front lines of the pandemic, they sometimes mention cashiers and shelf stockers along with health care workers, police and firefighters.
Grocery stores and take-out restaurants have been deemed necessary in even the most locked-down jurisdiction. How do we keep them from becoming vectors for COVID-19?
Slowing the spread
In mid-March, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert joined other states’ leaders in closing schools and restaurant dining rooms to slow the spread of the coronavirus that has sickened more than 164,000 Americans and killed nearly 3,200. Worldwide infections have surpassed 800,000.
Restaurants can still prepare food, which can be ordered online or by phone and picked up or delivered. Herbert has encouraged people to buy takeout three times a week to keep businesses alive during this pandemic. They provide jobs and boost the economy. America’s main industry is service — and dining out is a huge part of that.
But it’s primarily food retailers — the grocery stores, supermarket chains and stores that sell food along with other products — that keep Americans fed. They also make jobs in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and other aligned industries necessary. The Food Marketing Institute said food retailers created 4.8 million jobs in 2017, paid nearly $168 billion in wages, paid $153 billion in taxes and had overall economic impact of $899.2 billion.
Still, in a pandemic, stores should be approached with some caution. They’re one of the few places right now where people find themselves mingling with strangers.
“For grocers, this is a critical time to ensure the health and safety of their guests and employees,” said Mahmoud Shoblaq, project manager of Food Safety Consulting Services at NSF International, which works with supermarkets and grocery stores. He noted the need to follow a COVID-19 response plan to minimize risk to both.
“All policies must follow the direction of local jurisdiction and strictly outline practices of self-monitoring, self-isolating, good personal hygiene and social distancing. Doing so will help grocery stores stay safe and stay open during such an important time,” he said.
Some experts tout food delivery as the best option, especially for people at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 because of health conditions like heart disease or age. Others suggest treating a grocery store like a restaurant and do “takeout”: Order online and pick things up at the curb.
Many do just that. According to Consumer Reports, “Grocery- and meal-delivery services are seeing huge spikes in business. Instacart, the largest grocery-delivery company, reported record customer demand in the past week. Competitors FreshDirect and Shipt said they also were seeing big surges in orders, as did Amazon, owner of grocery delivery services Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now.”
Making changes, taking care
Employee safety is the first priority so they can continue to take care of customers and the community, said Aubriana Martindale, Smith’s Food & Drug corporate affairs manager.
Smith’s and its parent company, Kroger, are among stores allowing customers and clerks to wear masks and gloves if they have them. Those are in short supply and Martindale says medical providers ought to be first to receive them, but cashiers and store workers put themselves at risk, too. The company is working with elected officials to try to secure the protective gear for employees “as a second line of defense,” behind excellent hygiene and cleaning practices.
The pandemic has been a wild ride for grocery stores, now so busy that every day feels like the day before Thanksgiving as shoppers snap up supplies to face the pandemic, Martindale said. It’s “unprecedented and something that couldn’t have been anticipated.”
Apparent shortages are an illusion caused by people panic buying, she said. But stores have had to limit the number of certain items people can buy until supply and demand steady.
Because senior citizens and people with compromised immune systems face greater risk of dire outcomes, most grocers have set up a special hour when they can shop exclusively, usually the first hour of certain days.
Physical changes like distancing signage, greeters with wipes and plexiglass barriers are plentiful. Hand-washing is being built into worker schedules. Cleaning has been stepped up to pandemic standards. And stores typically close early so employees can restock, deep clean and get much-needed rest.
Customers are changing, too. They’re much more worried about picking up illness from products, including produce and packaging. CDC says there’s no evidence of COVID-19 infections that came from touching either.
The greatest risk of infection comes from other people, Dr. Lauren Sauer, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told Time. But fear was ratcheted up by a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that found detectable levels of novel coronavirus on various surfaces for hours after contamination.
Don’t overreact, Joseph G. Allen, assistant professor of exposure and assessment science at Harvard University, told The Washington Post. He noted the difference between a detectable amount and an amount that would likely infect someone. The study measured half life — the time it takes virus to degrade by half — which happens within hours. And then half again. Waiting even a few hours before using a product allows time for surface virus to dissipate. Not touching your face while shopping is what matters for safety, as well as washing your hands as soon as you get home and again after you stow the groceries.
“If you need to use something immediately and want to take extra precautions, wipe the package down with a disinfectant. Last, wash all fruits and vegetables as you normally would,” he said.
What stores can do
Stores are designed to encourage impulse buying by funneling customers past lots of enticing items. Shopping goals in a pandemic are different. The rule is get in and get out.
Albertsons, Costco, Harmons, Kroger, Publix, Sam’s Club, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods — pretty much all grocers — have made changes to combat COVID-19. Some sanitize carts as you walk in. Some aren’t allowing reusable bags. Food samples are gone. Limits may be placed on how many customers are in a store. Target temporarily stopped taking in-store returns or exchanges.
Some stores have created special paid leave to make sure sick workers stay home. Ask your favorite store what it’s doing.
NSF International’s Shoblaq suggests stores use “engineer controls” to manage customer traffic flow and even stagger customer entry. He said stores may adjust so lines are outside the store in open air when possible to reduce respiratory drops on store surfaces. Stores could give customers pagers to call them in when it’s their turn to shop.
Shoblaq recommended getting rid of bulk items during the crisis, instead pre-packing items like produce and nuts.
Martindale said Smith’s customers have made it clear they appreciate store efforts. “There’ve been so many things that have been an outpouring of support to our store teams.”
