Reducing close proximity to others is one of the best ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, social distancing (maintaining at least 6 feet of distance between yourself and others) is extremely important. To promote social distancing, we encourage implementing the following health and safety measures:

• Stress, fatigue, and long hours can tire any retail professional. Encourage your retail professionals/workers to get plenty of sleep.
• Encourage staff to take their breaks.
• Encourage staff to stand back when at their station as much as possible, consider providing colored tape on the floor in the cashier area as a reminder.
• Store employees and customers must wear a face covering, covering their nose and mouth.
• Consider expanding store hours, curbside pickup and delivery in order to naturally promote social distancing in stores.
• Whenever possible try to spread out cashiers and active checkout aisles.
• Encourage staff to secure their hair to avoid having to touch one’s face and stray hair.
• Encourage cleaning and sanitizing of cellphones often, especially at the end of shifts.
• Consider providing a shield between cashiers and customers (this does not take the place of social distancing).
• Encourage customers to bag their own items in order to maintain social distancing. Consider utilizing bagging staff to support curbside pickup, delivery and other necessary store services.
• In order to ensure social distancing consider moving customer payment card-readers away from cashiers as much as possible.
• Put the credit card reader on a sanitizing schedule and sanitize often during periods of heavy use.
• Encourage extra handwashing. Hand sanitizer is helpful but is not a substitute for handwashing. Remember, everything scanned at the register was likely handled by multiple people including the customer. Cashiers may also be handling money, credit cards or store cards.

Kendall County Health Department continues to serve as a resource for food service establishments and retail food stores. Please feel free to contact us at 630-553-9100 with any questions you may have.