Correction: Bread Furst has entrance control procedures in place to limit the number of people inside at one time. The item below has been changed.
A floor sticker at Bread Furst.
by Will Fowler
The District has made some strides toward allowing normal life to resume. In Phase 2, restaurants are welcoming dine-in customers again. You can work out at the gym or get your nails done. But make no mistake – we’re still in a pandemic. We’ve seen the surge in coronavirus cases in other parts of the country when people stop being careful.
We thought it would be helpful to see – in one place – what grocery stores have been doing to help shoppers and employees safely go about their business.
We collected the information below by visiting each store and speaking to employees. We asked: How they are they managing the number of shoppers in the stores at one time? How are they helping customers and staff keep their distance from one another? When are the stores the busiest? What items have to be restocked the most often? (Not just toilet paper!)
Giant Food (4303 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: None, but signs are posted reminding customers to socially distance and wear masks.
- Social distancing policy: Stickers on the floor demarcate six feet distances and there are arrows pointing controlling the flow of foot traffic through the store.
- Busiest hours: 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on weekdays, 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekends.
- Most restocked item: Toilet paper.
Uptown Market (4465 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: None. Indoor dining has reopened, but the entrance is separate from the market.
- Social distancing policy: Signs remind customers to keep a distance of six feet, but there are no physical guides besides tape on the floor in some parts of the store.
- Busiest hours: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. daily.
- Most restocked item: Fresh fruit.
Bread Furst (4434 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: “Friday-Sunday and periodically throughout the week we have people stationed at both door ways to monitor the in/out and control the amount of people in the store,” Scott, a Bread Furst manager, told Forest Hills Connection. “We have taken great pride since the beginning to assist our community and customers in maintaining social distancing here in the store.”
- Social distancing policy: Stickers remind customers to stay at a six foot distance.
- Busiest hours: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. daily.
- Most restocked item: Flour.
Streets Market (3427 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: None. “We used to have a line out the door,” said one cashier. “But we don’t have to limit the number of people in here anymore. Not as many people come by now.”
- Social distancing policy: Stickers throughout the store remind customers to keep at a six foot distance.
- Most restocked item: Toilet paper.
Yes! Organic Market (3425 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: None.
- Social distancing policy: There are some stickers near checkout, but narrow aisles and an absence of any guidelines elsewhere can make navigating the store difficult.
- Busiest hours: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, midday on weekends.
- Most restocked item: Carbonated drinks.
Broad Branch Market (5608 Broad Branch Road NW)
- Entrance control: The store limits entry to five customers at a time, but that rule sometimes isn’t enforced.
- Social distancing policy: Stickers throughout the store remind customers to keep a six foot distance and control traffic flow in the store. Customers are directed around the store in a counterclockwise fashion.
- Busiest hours: 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. daily.
- Most restocked item: Fresh produce.
Safeway (5545 Connecticut Avenue NW)
- Entrance control: None, but signs are posted reminding customers to socially distance and wear masks.
- Social distancing policy: Although in parts of the store stickers keep customers at a six foot distance and control traffic flow in the store, there are some areas of the store without such controls.
- Busiest hours: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily.
- Most restocked item: Hand sanitizer.
Whole Foods (4530 40th Street NW)
- Entrance control: Numbers in the store are limited, and employees are posted outside to enforce that rule.
- Social distancing policy: Stickers keep customers at a six foot distance.
- Busiest hours: 11:00 to 3:00 pm. daily.
- Most restocked item: Toilet paper.
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Green Eyeshades says
I noticed that of the eight stores you surveyed, only two (Giant & Safeway) explicitly mention wearing masks on signage at the entrance. Whole Foods (Amazon) claims on all of its websites that it is requiring everyone to wear masks inside its stores, but you didn’t see explicit reference to masks at the entrance to the Whole Foods in Tenleytown.
Did you happen to notice whether customers were, in fact, wearing masks at Giant and Safeway? What about at the other six stores?
Green Eyeshades says
Correction: apparently the mask requirement for customers at Whole Foods does not go into effect until this coming Monday. This is what their website says today (July 18):
“Effective July 20, Whole Foods Market requires all customers to wear face coverings while shopping in our stores to protect the health and safety of our Team Members and communities. Whole Foods Market provides face masks at the entrance of all stores for customers who do not have their own face covering. Stores will continue to follow local ordinances regarding personal protective equipment.”
Madeline La Porta says
Giant at Van Ness has become extremely lax. Shopping carts are not sanitized, hand sanitizer at the door is often empty, and wipes are sometimes dry or empty. Directional arrows are pointless as neither customers nor store employees restocking shelves comply with them. If I could shop elsewhere I would. Family members in Buffalo, NY tell me that Wegman’s has sanitized carts and separates them from recently used carts and that there are hand sanitizer stations throughout the store. The staff at Giant are the best part of the store. They are often helpful and courteous. I feel sorry that they must work in such a lax environment.
Green Eyeshades says
Yikes! Thank you for this warning.
We should all be very cautious about going to grocery stores, if we are age 60 or older. Especially in view of the recent serious increase in the rate of transmission (infection), and the numbers of new positive Covid-19 cases per day, and the increase in “community spread.” The “dashboard” used by the Mayor and DC Health to show where we are in the pandemic has even been forced to “pause” for four days because the direction of the community spread “arrow” turned from “falling” to “rising” in the past week (using data from ten to 14 days earlier). In a different data series, we had 78 new cases on July 19, 88 new cases on July 20, 102 new cases on July 21, 42 new cases on July 22, then back to 78 new cases on July 23.