Fresh Market To Require Customers To Wear Face Coverings In NoVA

VIENNA, VA — The Fresh Market, an upscale grocery store chain with two Northern Virginia locations, will require customers to wear face coverings due to the new coronavirus outbreak. The requirement is already in effect for workers, and customers will need to wear face coverings starting on Tuesday, April 14.

The grocery store chain cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation for wearing face coverings in public places where social distancing is difficult to maintain. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam encouraged Virginia residents to wear face coverings when out in public for essential tasks. He stopped short of making it a requirement, as leaders in DC and Montgomery County, Maryland have done.

Fresh Market stores have taken other measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other illness. Stores limiting the number of customers allowed inside at one time. Adjusted store hours are 8 am. to 9 p.m. daily, and the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. hour is reserved for seniors and other high-risk individuals. Stores have signage about social distancing measures and have installed plexiglass shields at the checkout lanes with contactless credit card payments. Cashiers have been provided with gloves, and workers are instructed to regularly disinfect high touch areas.

In select areas, stores are limiting quantities of high-demand items that customers can purchase, such as paper products, disinfectants, milk and eggs.

Fresh Market joins other grocery store chains in implementing changes in response to COVID-19 illness. The chain has locations at 150 Branch Road SE in Vienna and 3680 King Street in Alexandria.

SEE ALSO:

• Face Masks Encouraged But Not Required In VA: Gov. Northam
• Giant Food To Limit Customers Inside Virginia, DC Stores
• Virginia Coronavirus: 5,747 Cases, Fairfax Has 200+ Hospitalized