Getting ready to go to the grocery store now consists of making sure you have a mask, gloves and of course your grocery list before leaving the house. 

Stores are making sure everyone is safe when entering and exiting their stores by following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. 

The CDC guidelines for grocery stores recommend wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are being taken. Maintaining a six foot distance from others while shopping is also being enforced at most stores. 

The CDC also recommends that every store makes sure commonly touched surfaces are being sanitized after every use like, door handles, grocery carts, and payment machines.

Most stores are abiding by CDC guidelines but some are going the extra mile to keep customers safe like Costco Wholesale. 

Costco recently updated their store policies. As of May 4th, Costco members and employees must always wear a mask while inside the warehouse. To keep store capacity low, Costco will allow no more than two people to enter the warehouse with each membership card.

“Our main priority is to keep everyone safe while inside the warehouse, we want to get everyone what they need as quickly and efficiently as possible,” said Isaac Powell, a Costco employee. 

Many stores in the Central Valley have designated hours for senior citizens to shop so they don’t come in contact with young people who could potentially be carriers of the coronavirus. 

With COVID-19 not slowing its roll, employees hope that all shoppers can respect the rules to keep each other safe. 

“Most customers follow the rules and that’s great but there are some [customers] that don’t abide by the rules so we have to remind them of why they are in place,” said Powell.

When asked if toilet paper will ever sit on the shelves normally like it once did before COVID-19, Powell chuckled and said “who knows.”