LEHI, Utah (ABC4 News) – One of our ABC4 viewers sent a question to our newsroom, asking how grocery stores are disinfecting the store and keeping things clean during the COVID-19 pandemic.
To answer the question we were granted access to Harmons Grocery in Lehi, one of many retailers taking extra precautions during this time.
“We’ve added a lot of additional staff to the the cleaning and disinfecting of our stores,” said Scott Lewis, Vice President of Operations, Harmons Grocery Stores. “There’s a whole team of associates in every one of our stores and that is that really all they’re doing.”
Throughout the day employees are responsible for disinfecting shopping carts, credit card machines and checkout stands, after each customer. Employees must wear gloves and are also wearing masks. Plexiglass barriers have also been installed at cash-wraps and in the pharmacy and business areas of the store.
“Once we close down at night, we go through and wipe down any of the surface areas that customers come in contact with. Te have a pretty thorough checklist in every department. that is done on a scheduled basis throughout the store, and that’s required to be done,” Lewis explained.
Employees are also required to wear gloves while handling produce.
“That’s something we’ve had in place for a couple weeks now. That’s kind of our best tool. So it’s (produce) never touched by our associates without without the gloves on.”
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Harmons Grocery stores also have social distancing decals reminding customers to stay six-feet away from each other. That reminder, in addition to customers coming in less frequently, but buying more items at once, shopping online, and shortened operating hours, is also helping keep employees and customers safe, according to the vice president of operations.
“What that’s done is one, it’s allowed us to shift more of our associates to work in hours where customers are not in the store, keeping both customers and associates safe from each other. And then second, it allows us a time to go through the store and get things disinfected and cleaned and ready for customers the next day.”
To learn more about the precautions Harmons grocery is taking, click here.
