Social distancing is being advocated as the way to beat COVID-19 , and shops too are coming up with ways to regulate crowds.
At Big Bazaar, home delivery is being actively encouraged, says operations manager Robin Xavier. Payment can be made on delivery.
Only the food and household goods sections are open at the store.
People are let in after a temperature check and hand sanitising.
Safety stickers to ensure distance between customers are in use at the weighing and billing counters and customer care desk. Employees are deployed to ensure that the precautions are being observed and to manage the customers. Announcements urging customers to follow the instructions are made every half an hour.
Mr. Xavier says they are taking care to ensure that not more than 15 customers are present on a floor at a time.
At a margin free market at Poojappura, only five persons are allowed in at a time. Tokens are issued to others. However, things are not going as planned, admits the owner.
The whole point of issuing tokens is to prevent crowding outside the store. However, people still stand together.
Even at the billing counter, the customers are loathe to stand at a distance from each other. They have to be told to maintain some gap, he says.
