How Does CA's Stay-At-Home Order Affect Grocery Shopping?

CALIFORNIA — Californians may see some longer lines at local grocery markets this winter — and they won't necessarily be due to a bustling holiday season. Under the state's new regional stay-at-home order, standalone grocery stores are required to limit capacity to 35 percent.

Grocery stores narrowly escaped having to limit capacity to 20 percent this week as part of a mandate within the California Department of Public Health's regional stay-at-home order. But on Sunday, just hours before the order came down, officials modified the mandate.

Grocery retailers will only be able to operate under 35 percent capacity for the next three weeks under the stay-at-home order. Capacity was reduced from 50 percent, which has been the standard cap since the pandemic guidelines were first issued in California.

"In order to ensure that California's grocery stores are able to safely deliver sufficient quantities of food to California households, it is necessary to ensure capacity for grocery stores," Dr. Erica S. Pan wrote in a supplement to order.

The revision was likely made in response to a plea from the Calfornia Grocers Assn. to bolster capacity, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"All access to grocery stores must be strictly metered to ensure compliance with the limit on capacity," Pan wrote. "The sale of food, beverages, and alcohol for in- store consumption is prohibited."

All other retail storefronts must remain at 20 percent and grocery stores must be "standalone" to allow 35 percent capacity.

Retail busiess operators that violate the stay-at-home order could be subject to a fine, a misdemeanor, a revoked business license or court-imposed penalties, according to the state.

READ MORE: Will CA's Stay-At-Home Order Be Enforced? It's Complicated

Ron Fong, president and CEO of the CA Grocer's Assn. told the Los Angeles Times that it was necessary for grocery stores to be separated from other types of retail. Officials from the association were initially concerned that the 20 percent cap would cause long lines. But Fong told the Times that customers will have less trouble under the modified order.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary said that grocery shopping in person was a essential.

"The need to be able to do some essential activities to get our food, our eggs, our milk, other essential supplies to make sure that some of our daily needs will continue," Ghaly said.

Ghaly also offered an explanation as to why in-person retail shopping remains open to public traffic while dine-in restaurants were shuttered.

When the state ordered all non-essential businesses to close the first time around, he said, the shopping experience was isolated to just a few "essential" retailers, such as grocery and hardware stores, but that resulted in "large numbers of people gathering indoors."

"We tried to create a system that allowed a variety of retailers to be open and operating so that customers...could go to places where we weren't seeing such densely populated stores," Ghaly said.

In mid November, when cases started to surge to significant levels, some shoppers didn't waste any time hightailing it to local markets to stockpile once again. While the so-called "panic shopping" hasn't appeared to be as widespread as it was in March, many stores over the last month have been drained of their toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

In March, Californians were hard-pressed to find any store that had had even one bottle of hand sanitizer left on the shelf. Gloves, Clorox wipes, paper towels, cleaning supplies, hand soap, frozen food and food staples such as rice or any type of meat were sold out everywhere.

But it remains to be seen whether the renewed stay-at-home orders will reignite a serious surge in panic shopping.

READ MORE: CA 'Panic Shopping' 2.0: Walmart, Costco Supplies Low Again

The regional stay-at-home order came down for millions of Southern California and San Joaquin Valley residents Sunday night, coronavirus infections continue on an upward trajectory across the state.

Given the stark numbers, five Northern California counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara, — banded together and decided to enforce the latest order ahead of a mandate from the state's Department of Public Health and announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

On Tuesday, California officials reported a 23,503 coronavirus daily case average over a 7-day average. The 14-day positivity rate has risen to 8.7 percent, and a total of 23,272 cases were recorded Monday.

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