Question: While working at a grocery store or working in food retail, what should our employers do to keep us and the customers safe?

Answer passage (source: CDC):
page_title: What Grocery and Food Retail Workers Need to Know about COVID-19
section_headers: As a grocery or food retail worker, how can I protect myself and slow the spread?
section_content: As a grocery or food retail worker, potential sources of exposures include
close contact for prolonged periods of time with a customer with COVID-19 and
touching your nose, mouth, or eyes after handling items, cash, or merchandise
that customers with COVID-19 have touched.

Notify your supervisor and stay home if having symptoms (fever, cough, or shortness of breath).
Follow CDC-recommended steps if you are sick. You should not return to work until the criteria to discontinue home isolation are met, in consultation with healthcare providers and state and local health departments.
Follow CDC recommended precautions and notify your supervisor if you are well but have a sick family member at home with COVID-19.
Limit close contact with others and maintain a distance of at least 6 feet, when possible. 
Remind customers to maintain 6 feet distance from workers and other customers with verbal announcements on the loudspeaker and written signage.


CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. Cloth face coverings may prevent people who don’t know they have the virus from transmitting it to others. These face coverings are not surgical masks or respirators and are not appropriate substitutes for them in workplaces where masks or respirators are recommended or required.
Encourage customers to use touchless payment options, when available. Minimize handling cash, credit cards, reward cards, and mobile devices, where possible.
When exchanging paper and coin money: 
Do not touch your face afterward.
Ask customers to place cash on the counter rather than directly into your hand.
Place money directly on the counter when providing change back to customers.
Wipe counter between each customer at checkout.


Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces such as workstations, cash registers, payment terminals, door handles, tables, and countertops on a routine basis. Follow the directions on the cleaning product’s label and clean hands afterwards.
Practice proper hand hygiene. This is an important infection control measure. With appropriate hand hygiene, gloves are not necessary for workers who are not involved in food preparation. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. An alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol can be used, but not as a substitute for cleaning hands with soap and water.
Key times to clean hands include: 
Before, during, and after preparing food
Before eating food
After using the toilet
After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
After putting on, touching, or removing cloth face coverings


Additional workplace-specific times to clean hands include: 
Before and after work shifts and periodically throughout shift
Before and after work breaks
After touching money or objects that have been handled by customers, such as reusable grocery bags
Before putting on and taking off disposable gloves when performing food prep


Avoid contact with body fluids.
Do not touch your eyes, nose, or mouth.
Use tissues when you cough, sneeze, or touch your face. Throw used tissues in the trash.


Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Has very detailed safety information aimed specifically at grocery workers.
This answer is excellent because it gives detailed explanations as to how grocery store workers can protect themselves and others from the virus.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: CDC):
page_title: What Grocery and Food Retail Workers Need to Know about COVID-19
section_headers: What steps should my employer take?
section_content: Grocery and food retail establishment employers should have a COVID-19 health
and safety plan to protect employees, following CDC
Interim Guidance for Businesses and
Employers. This plan should be shared with you and your
coworkers. Employers should:
Reduce transmission among employees

Take steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 if an employee is sick. 
Actively encourage sick employees to stay home.
Sick employees diagnosed with COVID-19 shouldn’t return to work until the criteria to discontinue home isolation are met, in consultation with healthcare providers and state and local health departments.
Provide employees with accurate information about COVID-19, how it spreads, and risk of exposure.
Be aware that some employees may be at higher risk for serious illness, such as older adults and those with chronic medical conditions. Implement specific policies to minimize face-to-face contact between these employees or assign work tasks that allow them to maintain a distance of six feet from other workers, customers and visitors, or to telework if possible.
Provide training to employees on proper hand washing practices and other routine preventative measures. This will help prevent the spread of many diseases, including COVID-19.


Provide employees with access to soap, clean running water, and materials for drying their hands, and provide alcohol-based hand sanitizers containing at least 60% alcohol at stations around the establishment for use by both workers and customers.

Maintain a healthy work environment

Institute measures to physically separate and increase distance between employees, other coworkers, and customers, such as: 
Configure partitions with a pass-through opening at the bottom of the barrier in checkout lanes, customer service desks, and pharmacy and liquor store counters as a barrier shield, if possible.
Use every other check-out lane to aid in distancing.
Move the electronic payment terminal/credit card reader farther away from the cashier in order to increase the distance between the customer and the cashier, if possible.
Use verbal announcements on the loudspeaker and place signage throughout the establishment, at entrances, in restrooms, and in breakrooms to remind employees and customers to maintain distances of 6 feet from others.
Place visual cues such as floor decals, colored tape, or signs to indicate to customers where they should stand during check out.
Shift primary stocking activities to off-peak or after hours when possible to reduce contact with customers.
Remove or rearrange chairs and tables or add visual cue marks in employee break rooms to support social distancing practices between employees. Identify alternative areas such as closed customer seating spaces to accommodate overflow volume.


Provide remote shopping alternatives for customers, including click-and-collect, delivery, pick-up, and shop-by-phone to limit customers in the establishment. Set up designated pick-up areas.
Control the flow of traffic into the establishment by ensuring that maximum capacity plans are adjusted and managed at the front door.
Place posters that encourage staying home when sick, cough and sneeze etiquette, and good hand hygiene at the entrance to the workplace and in other workplace areas where they are likely to be seen.
Provide tissues and no-touch disposal receptacles for use by employees.
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces within the establishments. If the surfaces are visibly dirty, clean them prior to disinfecting. To disinfect, use products that meet EPA’s criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2external icon, diluted household bleach solutions prepared according to the manufacturer’s label for disinfection, or alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol, and are appropriate for the surface. Follow manufacturer’s directions for use. 
Clean frequently touched shelving, displays, and reach-in refrigerator units nightly when closed to the public.
Conduct frequent cleaning of employee break rooms, rest areas, and other common areas.
Clean grocery carts and baskets.
Require employees to clean out lockers nightly to facilitate overnight deep cleaning processes.


Provide disposable disinfectant wipes, cleaner, or spray so employees can wipe down frequently touched surfaces such as workstations, cash registers, credit card touch pad, door handles, conveyer belts, tables, cart handles, and countertops.
Follow all applicable local, state, and federal regulations and public health agency guidelines.

Maintain healthy business operations

Designate a person who is responsible for responding to COVID-19 concerns. Employees should know who this person is and how to contact them.
Consider using a hotline for employees to voice concerns anonymously.
Implement flexible worksites (telework) for office staff to the extent feasible.
Limit travel for multi-store personnel to only what is required for critical facility functions. Whenever possible, conduct conversations through phone calls.
Leverage closed-circuit television (camera systems) to remotely view facilities as opposed to physically visiting the location.
Implement flexible sick leave and supportive policies and practices. Consider drafting non-punitive emergency sick leave policies if sick leave is not offered to some or all employees. Employers should not require a positive COVID-19 test result or a healthcare provider’s note for employees who are sick to validate their illness, qualify for sick leave, or to return to work.
Provide information on who to contact if employees become sick. If an employee is confirmed to have COVID-19 infection, employers should inform fellow employees of their possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace but maintain confidentiality as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Implement a system in which relief workers rotate into the cashier station to allow cashiers to leave the station to wash their hands regularly.
Consider decreasing open business hours to perform more frequent deep cleans.


Reviewer feedback on this answer:
This answer is excellent because it provides a lot of detail as to how grocery store employees can keep their environment clean and safe from the virus.
Very detailed safety advice specifically focused on safely running a retail business like a grocery store.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: CDC):
page_title: What Food and Grocery Pick-up and Delivery Drivers Need to Know about COVID-19
section_headers: As a food and grocery pick-up and delivery driver (like Uber Eats, Grubhub,
DoorDash, Postmates, Instacart), how can I protect myself and others?
section_content: Potential sources of exposure include having close contact with individuals
with COVID-19 when picking up or delivering food or groceries, or by touching
surfaces touched or handled by a person with COVID-19.
Stay home if you are sick

If you develop a fever or symptoms, such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your healthcare provider for medical advice before visiting their office.
You should not return to work until the criteria to discontinue home isolation are met, after talking with your doctor.

Wear a cloth face covering

CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, especially in areas where a lot of people are infected.
Cloth face coverings may prevent people who don’t know they have the virus from transmitting it to others.
These face coverings are not surgical masks or respirators and are not appropriate substitutes for them in workplaces where masks or respirators are recommended or required.

Limit contact

Avoid close contact with individuals as much as possible when picking up food, groceries, or other items at restaurants or grocery stores. This helps protect both you and the workers at the restaurants or grocery stores bringing the items to you.
Practice contactless deliveries to the greatest extent possible. Contactless deliveries allow you to leave a delivery at a doorstep, move back to a distance greater than 6 feet away while verifying receipt of the delivery with the person getting the delivery, and try to do all interactions electronically (e.g., in an app or over a phone). This eliminates the need for close contact between you and the person getting the delivery.
Limit your contact with frequently touched surfaces during pickups and deliveries, such as countertops, elevator buttons, doorbells, door handles, radio buttons, etc.
Avoid sharing scanners, pens, or other tools with customers.
Use a foot, shoulder, elbow, hip, or forearm instead of hands when opening doors at pick-up and delivery sites, if possible.

Practice Everyday Preventive Actions

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
Proper hand hygiene is an important infection control measure. Keep in mind where you can access and use facilities with soap and water during your shift. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least 60% alcohol.
Key times to clean hands include: 
Before, during, and after preparing food
Before eating food
After using the toilet
After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing


Additional times to clean hands on the job include: 
Before and after work shifts
Before and after work breaks
Before and after making a delivery
After putting on, touching, or removing cloth face coverings
After touching frequently touched surfaces such as doorbells or door handles
Before wearing and after removing cold-weather gloves
Before and after pumping gas


Carry tissues in your vehicle and use them when you cough, sneeze or touch your face. Throw used tissues in the trash.

Clean and Disinfect

Get and carry cleaning and disinfectant spray or disposable wipes and a trash bag with you in your vehicle.
Clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces at the beginning and end of each shift, particularly if the vehicle is also used by other drivers, following the directions on the cleaning product’s label. Clean surfaces that are visibly dirty with detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection. Frequently touched surfaces include the steering wheel, gearshift, signaling levers, door handles, and seatbelt buckles.
Wipe down items such as pens and electronic signature pads/mobile devices if shared with a delivery recipient after each use.
Appropriate disinfectants to use for hard non-porous surfaces include: 
EPA’s Registered Antimicrobial Products for Use Against Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2external icon
Diluted household bleach solutions prepared according to the manufacturer’s label for disinfection, if appropriate for the surface
Alcohol solutions with at least 70% alcohol




Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Has reasonable safety advice, but it's directed at consumers instead of grocery store employees.
This answer is excellent because it is detailed and gives multiple different answers as to how grocery store workers and delivery workers can keep themselves and others safe from the virus.

Reviewer ratings:
Acceptable
Excellent