California Mandates 35% Metering in Grocery Stores
A few weeks after Walmart became the largest food retailer since summer to reinstate capacity limits in stores, California officials walked back a stringent capacity limit for grocery stores in that state.
Health officials there said they will allow grocery stores to operate at 35% capacity after initially calling for a 20% cap. The 35% is still down from a 50% cap, which has been in effect statewide since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the Los Angeles Times, state officials worked with the California Grocers Association to bring clarity to the latest order, said Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the industry group.
According to CNBC, on Nov. 14, Walmart resumed metering the number of customers entering its stores as coronavirus cases surge at record rates across the country.
Walmart has been restricting the number of people in its big-box stores to not exceed five customers per every roughly 1,000 square feet, or about 20% of a store’s capacity. For a period of time, however, the biggest grocery retailer in the United States had stopped metering.
“We know from months of metering data in our stores that the vast majority of the time our stores didn’t reach our self-imposed 20% metering capacity,” a Walmart spokesman told CNBC in an emailed statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have resumed counting the number of people entering and leaving our stores.”
The new restrictions in California are expected to spread to other states as the COVID-19 crisis escalates across the country.
Meanwhile, many grocery chains have also reinstated purchasing limits on certain items, such as toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart operates more than 11,300 stores under 58 banners in 27 countries, and e-commerce websites, employing 2.2 million-plus associates worldwide. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, while Walmart-owned Sam's Club ranks No. 9 on PG’s list.
