The New Normal: Shopping etiquette during the COVID-19 pandemic
State and local governments have been encouraging essential businesses to take extra safety measures during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Local police departments are even offering shoppers tips on new shopping etiquette during what’s being referred to as the “new normal.”
Many stores have already enacted measures to help ensure a safe shopping experience for people making a necessary trip to a grocery store, pharmacy, or other essential business. And here are some of the steps that police in Baltimore County have encouraged those businesses that are essential and in operation to consider:
- Limit store hours to ensure time for cleaning and disinfecting.
- Allow early shopping hours restricted to at-risk populations.
- Limit the number of shoppers inside the store at a single time.
- Post signs reminding patrons to use 6-foot distancing rules.
- Encourage shoppers to sanitize their hands before entering.
- Encourage shoppers to wear a face cover while shopping.
- Utilize one-way aisle shopping with directional floor stickers or other markings.
- Use floor markers, stickers or cones to set line positioning at 6-foot intervals.
- Place plexiglass barriers between cashiers and shoppers at the checkout.
The number one recommendation for shoppers around the country is not to go out at all.
Utilize the many options that stores are providing for online shopping, delivery, or curb-side pick-up. A quick phone call or online search of the company can indicate if a store is offering any of these options for you.
If you do have to venture out over the next few weeks, keep the following tips in mind:
- Go shopping alone – do not bring kids – and designate one shopper for your household to limit exposure.
- Do not go shopping if you are feeling ill or under the weather at all.
- Minimize your shopping trips to once every week or every other week.
- Bring a face cover with you – a jogging or motorcycle half-mask, a folded handkerchief or bandana across your nose and mouth, even a scarf. If you don’t have one available, make sure you cover your nose and mouth fully with the crook of your elbow if you cough or sneeze.
- Keep your hands clean – wash often and sanitize your hands before you enter the store and before you put your hands back on your steering wheel. Follow the 20-second and wash your hands with warm soapy water. Click on the video below to see a demonstration.
- Wearing latex gloves may give you a false sense of security. They can keep your hands clean but they’ll spread germs just as easily if you aren’t careful about what you touch.
- Bring a disinfectant wipe with you and wipe down the cart handle before shopping.
- Only touch items you plan on buying – remember the wise words of your mother, “Look but don’t touch!”
- Adhere to the directions stores use for one-way aisle shopping and be patient with the person in front of you – try to refrain from passing them in the aisle.
- Maintain 6 feet of distance between you and other shoppers throughout the store.
- Stand 6 feet – the length of 2 standard shopping carts – away from the person in line at the checkout in front of you.
- Do not hoard goods. Supply cannot keep up with excessive demand; but if we purchase “normal use” quantities there will remain plenty for everyone to go around.
- Pay for goods with a card instead of exchanging cash – the card can be wiped clean.
- Be patient – expect lines at the checkout.
Most importantly, please be patient, kind and courteous with everyone around you. Tensions are apt to run high at times. This is a tough time for everyone; but we are in this together and we must all work together to ensure a safe environment for everyone.
Protect yourself, but also remember to protect those around you from the germs you may be carrying. If we all adopt this new shopping etiquette, we can help slow and ultimately stop the spread of this dangerous virus and keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.
Happy shopping – and wash those hands!
For more on being out in public and shopping safely during the current pandemic, see the video accompanying this article.
Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
(Source: Baltimore County Police)
