Spargs Superspar in Komani has put safety measures in place to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak as social grant beneficiaries and customers queued to access essential goods from grocery stores.
Speaking to The Rep, manager Wayne Kretschmer said crowd control was one of the precautionary measures practiced at the store. “We are guided by the municipality as well as the national government in most things. Not more than 50 people in the store at a time. We are trying to impose social distancing where people need to stand one metre apart. All staff have been briefed and taught how to deal with Covid-19 through eLearning and customers as well has staff have to sanitise before coming inside. If they do not comply they are obviously not welcome in the store.”
Kretschmer said the store has had long queues which they have managed and continue to control. “The biggest problem is that people do not understand what is going on. We have had to educate people because not everyone has access to the internet and TV. We are doing our best to educate, we have got security involved, also in managing the queues outside. It is sad to see that a lot of people do not understand how such a simple thing as sanitising can actually save people’s lives and when we have to turn people away, but we have no choice because we have staff and customers to think of as well. We put up educational posters around the store and we announce safety guidelines every now and then over the intercom.”
Kretschmer said they had not experienced any panic buying as customers were buying what they could afford.