CREATING A SAFE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
With safety being the primary concern, stores have re-opened to a changed reality. If you are planning to shop from a store but worried about it being safe, here’s what you need to know. Nitasha Chawla shares
As some lockdown measures begin to ease and stores reopen, you can look forward to shopping for clothes in store again. However, if you’re nervous about entering a shop after months, you’re not alone. There are a few things you can look out for to give you more confidence while shopping in a store. It is a joint responsibility of the stores as well as customers to take the necessary steps to ensure a hygienic shopping experience.
The retailers have been advised to prefer contactless payment, provide hand sanitisers for staff and shoppers, regular disinfecting of surfaces, 1.5 metre social distancing and the four-square metre rule. These measures along with customer limits would instil a level of confidence in the customers.
So, before you take a shopping trip, make sure that the stores meet all the safety standards and you are well prepared with your personal safety gear as well (such as masks, disposable gloves, sanitisers).
Remember, the biggest risk you run of self-contamination is touching your face or your phone after handling shopped items or holding onto the shopping cart handle. Latex gloves should be disposed of immediately after use and you should sanitise directly after removing them to reduce your risk of exposure. Same goes for masks as well. Once you are ready to step out safely, here’s what you need to know about the ‘new way to shop’
TRYING CLOTHES BEFORE BUYING
These are unprecedented times and we have several questions on our mind before we embrace the ‘new normal’ in everything we used to do pre-lockdown. Talking about shopping, one of the biggest concerns is ‘Is it safe to try clothes on’? While, this is a first for the customers and retailers, proper precautions such as disinfecting the tried clothes can ensure safety for the next customer. Also, it has been said that the virus survives on hard surfaces, that too in perfect conditions, which means stuff like sunglasses or scarves that come in close contact with the face must be disinfected regularly.
To be careful with this nasty virus, you can ask the salesperson if you can use a disinfectant wipe to clean the glasses as most wipes contain detergent and alcohol that will not harm the glasses/ lenses but inactivate the virus.
Salespersons should ask customers to hand hygiene before trying on scarves and accessories and keep them away from their face. Once you purchase these items and get them home, it’s highly unlikely that these items pose any risk to you at all. But if you’re anxious, place them outside in the sun for a while, then enjoy them.
While metal and plastic can provide a haven for the virus for up to 2 to 3 days, clothing is not considered a material conducive to its survival. Humidity and moisture play a significant environmental role in whether or not a virus can thrive. The nature of most clothing materials is not conducive to this. And that is good news. However, do ensure that you wash the new clothes before you wear them for the first time.
DECONTAMINATION OF CLOTHES
Another worry we have is about how the store can ensure returned and tried items are disinfected. Well, it is possible by following simple steps such as steaming the clothes and isolating them for at least 48 hours before being made available for sale, spraying a stain-free disinfectant on clothes.
Same precautions can be followed for shoes, bags and other stuff as well. Remember, isolation is the key to staying virus-free. It holds true for the stuff we buy and people as well.