Meijer and Walmart both enacted new shopping protocols this weekend to try and reduce the risk of coronavirus spread.

MEIJER
Meijer is asking customers to limit the number of shoppers per trip, while understanding that some customers may need additional assistance. The company is also implementing processes to monitor the number of customers in stores, including managing the number of customers shopping to support proper social distancing practices.

Meijer has begun conducting daily health screenings and temperature checks of team members as they arrive at the store, and has installed protective plexiglass shields at all check lanes and pharmacies in its 248 supercenters and stores. The company said it would be adding signage and broadcast announcements inside the store educating customers about proper social distancing, and is temporarily suspending the weekly sales ad beginning April 12 to decrease customer count inside the store.

WALMART
Effective this weekend, Walmart is limiting the number of customers who can be in a store at once. Stores will now allow no more than five customers for each 1,000 square feet at a given time, roughly 20 percent of a store’s capacity.

To manage this restriction, the associates at a store will mark a queue at a single-entry door (in most cases the grocery entrance) and direct arriving customers there, where they will be admitted one-by-one and counted. Associates and signage will remind customers of the importance of social distancing while they’re waiting to enter a store – especially before it opens in the morning. Once a store reaches its capacity, customers will be admitted inside on a “1-out-1-in” basis.

Walmart is also enacting one-way movement through its aisles in a number of our stores, using floor markers and direction from associates. "We expect this to help more customers avoid coming into close contact with others as they shop," the company said in a release. "We’ll continue to put signage inside our stores to remind customers of the need to maintain social distancing – especially in lines. And once customers check out, they will be directed to exit through a different door than they entered, which should help lessen the instances of people closely passing each other."