Letter: Supermarkets Slacking Off Covid Rules in This Lockdown

Published on: 7 Jan, 2021
Updated on: 7 Jan, 2021

From: Ian Stronge

In response to: This Lethal Virus is No Respecter of Softly, Softly Policing

In the first lockdown, supermarkets were (variably) attentive to over-crowding and sanitising. This time they seem to have pretty much given up.

Yes, someone stands around the entrance in a yellow hi-viz but not actually engaging with anyone (they used to click-count them in and out). And there are sanitisers for those who know where to search them out (they used to be in your way on the way in).

Rather than point the finger at those who find masks and distancing more difficult (about as effective a policy as blaming litterers for litter), far better that the “Surrey Local Resilience Forum” should work with individual supermarket managers to promote and maintain best practice.

There must be some training professionals on furlough who could volunteer to train store staff in best practice for “engage” and “encourage”.

And surely local Chambers of Commerce would be only too glad to help, their more active members being among those who do promote and maintain best practice?

As the Police and Crime Commissioner implicitly acknowledges, Enforcement is a failure of “Engage and Encourage”.

Responses to Letter: Supermarkets Slacking Off Covid Rules in This Lockdown

Sara Tokunaga Reply

January 8, 2021 at 3:14 pm

In my local (very small) supermarket there are stop and go lights which unfortunately count the delivery trolleys as people, causing a queue to form.

But, having witnessed a worker being verbally abused by a customer who insisted on wearing his mask around his neck recently, I think we should all be a little more understanding of the pressure the store staff are under.

Apparently, this kind of abuse happens quite frequently, and it was only the intervention of us, the customers, which stopped this situation escalating. It is easy to blame other people for what, in the end, are our own selfish actions.
M Durant Reply

January 8, 2021 at 9:32 pm

In my local supermarket they do monitor how many people go in, there is hand sanitiser at the entrance of the supermarket, the stuff are hardworking and polite.

I would like to point out also that people who work on the shop floor in supermarkets are low paid, some get paid just above or on the minimum wage but they are working with the public so they are risking their life every day, working long hours.Fancy risking your life on a daily basis for such low pay.

They also have to commute from faraway because they can’t afford the extortionate rent rates in the area. They are people renting tiny rooms in multi-occupancy houses for £600- to £700-a-week with bills on top.

In some supermarkets they are made to stand at the tills for hours and are not given an option of a stool to sit on.