Stop & Shop Calls on Shoppers to Boost Store Safety
Stop & Shop has launched a TV and radio ad campaign designed to promote store safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Quincy, Mass.-based food retailer said its new "Please" campaign, which starts this week on television and radio stations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, provides suggestions on simple steps that customers can take to increase safety for store associates and fellow customers. Corresponding print and digital ads are expanding the campaign’s reach.
Stop & Shop suggests that consumers take such steps as shopping solo, respect one-way aisles and other social distancing guidelines and wear face masks. “While the impact of the pandemic has left none of our communities untouched, Stop & Shop’s extraordinary associates have stood firm in their commitment to keeping our stores open and accessible,” said Gordon Reid, president of Stop & Shop. “We are dedicated to our customers and appreciate them continuing to do everything they can do to help make shopping safer.”
The company has already taken steps to protects its workers as shopping continues during the pandemic. Those measures include strict customer capacity limits; clear plastic barriers at all registers; added space between check outs; masks and gloves for all associates; robust cleaning and sanitizing procedures; and disinfecting wipes near store entrances so customers can wipe down carriages, hand baskets and ScanIt! devices
The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union has also called for all Stop & Shop workers to be classified as first responders, along with similar calls by Albertsons and Kroger. “Such a designation would provide front-line food retail employees with access to virus testing, emergency daycare and support services for them and their families,” the retailer said. The UFCW represents 1.3 million workers in health care, grocery stores, meatpacking, food-processing, retail shops and other industries in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Stop & Shop employs nearly 60,000 associates and operates more than 400 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 4 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States
