Clean hands before entering

Friday, 3:16 pm

By Kate

Nov

02

2007

My supermarket (Shaw’s) has begun a new practice of providing a display set-up by the entrance with a box of hand wipes and a sign asking customers to help keep the store clean. There is no further explanation for what they are trying to accomplish, so I’m not sure whether it’s an effort to protect customers, with flu season just around the corner, or to literally help keep their store and products cleaner. I watched a couple of people comply and then I did, too. Didn’t really see any reason not to, other than the waste basket beside the display filled with used wipes that will, undoubtedly, end up in the landfill someplace.

Has anyone else seen their grocery stores do the same thing?

I don’t know how effective washing one’s hands at the grocery store door would be in cutting down on virus transmission (a person only has to sneeze or cough once and protection is gone, I’d think), but it might help keep the store cleaner if dirty hands are wiped clean before customers touch and handle products. Or is is a psychological thing, where customers might feel better about the store if they think people’s hands are clean when they enter? I really don’t know.