From Wednesday, restrictions on the number of people in the area apply in stores that can be open. A maximum of one person per 15 square meters can be in grocery stores, pharmacies, opticians and florists. Surprisingly, the government decided on the measure on Monday and before the national holiday, so traders had a minimum of time to prepare for a challenging change.
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The fears of critics of the measure were partially fulfilled. Some particularly smaller stores have queues of people waiting to be admitted. For them, traders must provide two-meter spacing. Some stores allow you to enter only with a basket and thus regulate the number of people in the stores. According to previous reports, long queues are not being created.
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Food chains are therefore working to keep the number of customers in the store under control. However, they agree that the measure came quickly and did not have enough time to prepare. “We have had one holiday for it since Monday,” said Albert spokesman Jiří Mareček. The closing of stores on a public holiday does not apply to 17 November.
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“On Friday, there were reports that something similar should be going on, so we did a preventive analysis, which shows that we would not handle 15-20 percent of customers at all in such a operation,” explains Mareček. That’s why Albert hastily stepped up the box office so that customers could be served as quickly as possible.
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Stores often want to solve the situation using electronic customer counting. The system works by the camera at the entrance recording the number of incoming and outgoing. The number of people currently in the store then appears on the light board. However, the restriction does not apply to workers.
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“No one will make it in a day”
“We contacted IT companies to see if they would be able to supply us with this electronic calculation. Unfortunately, no one is able to install it in one day. We had offers to make three stores a day, but we have three hundred stores, so it’s more complicated, “describes Mareček. In short, companies are not adapted to serve not only Albert stores in one night, but also hundreds of others in the Czech Republic.
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In Tesco stores, the customer counting system is available in several stores. “We have the advantage that we have piloted the customer counting project in the past. We assumed that something like this could happen, “said chain spokesman Tomáš Koukolíček. In the rest of the branches, the number of customers in stores is recorded by trained employees.
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A spokesman for the Globus chain also agrees that the government came up with a reduction in the number of people in stores in a hurry. “As a temporary solution on Wednesday, November 18, we chose to limit the number of shopping carts according to the area of the hypermarket’s shopping area,” said chain spokeswoman Lutfia Volfová, adding that they will implement a long-term solution in stores by scanning the number of customers from Thursday.
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“Security guards with counters in mobile devices will be present at all entrances throughout the opening hours, the numbers of customers from all these devices will be aggregated and displayed back to the mobile devices to the staff at the entrances,” explains Volfová. Globus also plans to install TV screens that will show the current number of customers.
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It will be worse before Christmas
The stores assume that in the pre-Christmas period there will traditionally be more shoppers in the stores. Therefore, due to current measures, there is a risk that queues could form. “If the capacity of the area is filled, we will let in newcomers according to the number of customers who leave the hypermarket,” Volfová describes the situation. According to her, the time spent in the queue could be around ten to 15 minutes. However, the estimate is also given by the fact that Globus has stores with the largest area in the Czech Republic.
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But the shops hope to avoid the formation of queues. “In the event of an appointment, employees will monitor two-meter spacings,” says Mareček. Therefore, the strings stick stickers on the floors that show the recommended distance.
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In some stores, however, the stickers are missing, because the sellers did not anticipate a limited number and did not have enough of them. “We did not order the brands. Suppliers are not able to print such a large number of stickers, “admitted Mareček. The brands will therefore improve gradually.
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The addressed chains stated that they are managing the situation so far. According to Koukolíček, on Saturday, when more people go shopping, stores could reach the upper limit of the number of customers, which would cause the formation of queues. The problem may be solved by strengthening the staff at the box office, or the fact that people will not go shopping in pairs.
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