Kroger Shares Coronavirus Preparedness Plan For Atlanta

ATLANTA, GA — Items such as hand sanitizer and cold and flu medicine continue to stay off shelves as people take precaution against the new Coronavirus, COVID-19. Grocery stores in Atlanta, such as Kroger, Publix and Target have set limits on purchases to help make sure everyone has a chance to buy what they need.

Kroger shared Thursday in a news release that its stores are limiting the number of cold, flu, and sanitary items so everyone can "have access to the products they need." The preparedness plan was set March 2.

"We believe that everyone deserves to have access to fresh, affordable food and essentials, especially in times of uncertainty," Kroger said in a news release. "That’s why our teams are working so hard to keep our stores clean, open and stocked."

The press release also said that they are working to get the "food, medicine and cleaning supplies" needed to stores "as quickly as possible."

Here’s the list of steps they are taking:

Stores

• Cleaning commonly used areas more often, including cashier stations, self-checkouts, credit card terminals, conveyor belts and food service counters, and cleaning shelves when restocking products.
• Sanitizing restrooms more frequently and restocking with supplies, including soap, paper towels and hand sanitizer.
• Adding extra hand sanitizer at cashier stations, food service counters, and all Pharmacy, The Little Clinic and Starbucks locations.
• Wiping down shopping carts, baskets and equipment.
• Partnering with our suppliers to replenish high-demand preparedness products.
• Continuing to provide our customers with free disinfectant wipes at our store entrances to sanitize their shopping carts or baskets.
• Following best practices for safe food handling, as always.

Employees

• Encouraging our associates to closely monitor their health and well-being.
• Providing hand sanitizer and tissues in breakrooms and meeting rooms.
• Asking our associates to stay home if they, or someone in their household, are sick.
• Providing financial support from our Helping Hands fund – a company-sponsored employee assistance fund – to associates who may be directly affected.
• Suspending business air travel for associates through March 31, 2020 and recommending virtual meetings.

Customers

• Encouraging our customers to follow the CDC’s suggested hygiene practices to reduce the spread of the virus.
• Recommending that our customers also practice safe food handling at home.

Kroger isn’t the only store taking precautions. Publix grocery stores have stopped offering food samples because of the coronavirus, and limited how much hand sanitizer can be purchased, the company confirmed to Patch.

Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said the grocery store chain is placing limits on various sanitizing products as well as face masks, gloves and disposable plates, cups and eating utensils.
As store shelves empty, Publix is limiting customer purchases to two of the following items:

• Hand soap
• Hand sanitizer
• Rubbing alcohol
• Face masks
• Gloves
• Disinfectant wipes and sprays
• Tissues
• Disposable cups, plates and eating utensils
• Bleach

In addition to the purchase limits, Publix announced it will discontinue food sampling.

Costco discount warehouse stores also announced that it is temporarily discontinuing its popular food samplings over safety concerns about the spread of coronavirus. Other limited items include diapers, baby wipes, water and more. There's a limit of two per membership.

Trader Joe's will continue to distribute food samples but, instead of placing samples on a single platter that allows customers to choose their own, the store will distribute samples individually as customers request them.

Target CEO Brian Cornell said Tuesday in a public letter that the company's stores have also stopped distributing samples. To keep the stores even cleaner, they've added additional hours and put more employees on Target's in-demand Order Pickup and Drive Up teams.

"On top of our daily cleaning procedures, we’re adding hours to each store’s payroll to make our routines even more rigorous," Cornell said. "This means more time will be spent cleaning our stores, including cleaning surfaces like checklanes and touchscreens at least every 30 minutes."

Employees who are sick are encouraged to stay home and travel is only permitted if "business critical." Target has also set up a 24/7 support forum to answer questions customers may have.

"This weekend, we started to limit the number of key items per purchase, which will allow more guests to get what they need," Cornell said.

Interactive Map: Latest U.S. Coronavirus Cases

Globally, more than 121,000 people have been infected and more than 4,300 people have died from the COVID-19, Johns Hopkins reported Tuesday. Of that total, more than 80,000 confirmed cases are in China, while the entire United States has 1,323 confirmed cases as of Thursday morning. Thirty deaths in the U.S. have been tied to the virus outbreak.

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