Fred Meyer to use infrared sensing to limit customers in stores as coronavirus spreads
Starting Tuesday, you may have to wait to get into a Fred Meyer store if it’s busy.
Kroger Co., the Cincinnati company that owns Fred Meyer and other supermarket chains, said Monday that it will limit customers in its stores to one per every 120 square feet.
That’s half the number allowed by the international building code, the company said. But it’s still more customers than the stores see at all but the busiest times. A typical Fred Meyer store has 150,000 square feet — enough to accommodate 1,250 customers under the new limit. But a spokesman told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday that the limit will be based on only the grocery portion of a store, which typically is about 60,000 square feet, enough for 500 customers.
The restriction is the latest among efforts by Kroger and other big retailers to overcome the challenge of coronavirus-pandemic social distancing in busy store aisles and checkout lanes. Walmart on Saturday limited customers to five per every 1,000 square feet to help prevent workers and customers from getting sick with COVID-19. That’s
Both chains sell both groceries and other goods such as clothing, furniture and electronics.
Kroger said its stores will keep count by using infrared-sensing technology they already use to monitor how many people enter and exit a store.
In the past few weeks, Fred Meyer and other stores have rolled out multiple measures to reduce the possible spread of the virus among customers and employees. Among them are more frequent cleanings of commonly used areas, plexiglass partitions at check-out stands, strips of tape 6 feet apart on floors to mark where people should stand in line, and granting permission to workers to wear protective masks and gloves.
Kroger is also testing one-way aisles in some stores. Walmart is testing them too.
Fred Meyer, based in Portland, said March 31 that it would pay an extra $2 per hour to all of its hourly front-line grocery, supply chain, manufacturing, pharmacy and call-center workers from March 29 through April 18.
“During this unprecedented time, Fred Meyer’s most urgent priority is to provide a safe environment for associates and customers, with open stores and an efficiently operating supply chain,” said Dennis Gibson, the company’s president.
Many grocery retails also have expanded pickup services, reduced their regular hours and rolled out special buying periods for senior citizens and people with compromised immune systems.
Fred Meyer has 132 stores in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, including seven in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, stretching from Southeast Boise west to Nampa.
This story was updated Tuesday, April 7, to reflect a return call from a Fred Meyer spokesman, who said that only the grocery portion of each store is being used to calculate the maximum number of customers allowed inside.
This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 3:13 PM.
