DENVER — Safeway, Albertsons And King Soopers stores across Colorado are taking new steps to promote social distancing guidelines inside stores.
On Monday, King Soopers announced that Colorado stores would reduce the number of shoppers inside stores by only allowing 50% of its building capacity. They said the move would reduce the number of customers from one to every 60 square feet to one to every 120 square feet.
>> The video above shows how some grocery stores have made adjustments amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Safeway and Albertson said Tuesday that stores will limit the number of customers who can be inside the store at one time to roughly 30% of the stores’ capacity -- and all employees will receive masks by the end of the week.
The stores will start a one-way aisle direction policy by marking the direction flow of each aisle. King Soopers said they are testing one-way aisles in select stores across the country.
Additional safety measures include plexiglass partitions at checkout lanes to distance customers and cashiers, ensuring stores follow CDC guidelines like frequent hand washing, hand sanitizers and surface cleaning.
Additional procedure changes from Safeway and Albertsons include:
- Social distancing assistance for customers with marked posters and decals around the store to direct shoppers to allow for six feet of separation -- which equals two shopping cars.
- Adjusted story hours from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. to allow employees to restock shelves and deep clean the stores.
- Increasing dedicated shopping hours for senior citizens and other high-risk populations to include Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
- Tripling service capacity for delivery and drive-up & go services and ensuring those deliveries are contact-free.
- Free pharmacy delivery with free same-day and next-day delivery of prescription.
Additional safety measures taken by King Soopers now include:
- Encouraging associates to wear protective masks and gloves, which have been ordered nationwide.
- Asking that associates actively monitor their health by taking their temperature before coming into work.
- Waiving delivery fees for prescriptions.
- Reducing Easter hours to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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