Grocery stores lobby for higher capacity rules
In an 11th- hour change, California off icials agree to boost capacity limits to 35% from 20%.
California officials have walked back a stringent capacity limit for grocery stores at the 11th hour to ensure that residents will have enough access to food amid a sweeping new stay- athome order.
On Sunday, hours before new a health order went into effect across much of California, officials issued an addendum allowing grocery stores to operate at 35% capacity — down from 50% capacity, which has been in effect statewide since the beginning of the pandemic, but up from 20% in the latest state- ordered restrictions. The state’s order had required both essential stores, such as grocers, and nonessential retail, such as shopping malls, to limit capacity to 20% if they were in an area considered a coronavirus danger zone. But the California Grocers Assn. lobbied against such a drastic reduction.
“In order to ensure that California’s grocery stores are able to safely deliver suff icient quantities of food to California households, it is necessary to ensure capacity for grocery stores,” according to the supplemental order signed by Dr. Erica Pan, the California Health Department’s acting public health officer, on Sunday.
Grocery stores must be stand- alone operations and primarily sell food to qualify for the increased capacity, the supplemental order says, noting that access must be “strictly metered” to ensure compliance.
Grocery stores in Los Angeles County had already been limited to 35% capacity since Nov. 30, when a bevy of new Health Department requirements went into effect. The revision to the statewide order, which was announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week and tied to a region’s hospitalization capacity, allows L. A. County grocers to continue operating at that level.
State officials worked over the weekend with the California Grocers Assn. to bring clarity to the latest order, said Dave Heylen, a spokesman for the industry group.
On Friday evening, the association said in a statement it did not think Newsom’s order applied to grocery stores. Now, the association is advising members to abide by the cap of 35%.
Ron Fong, president and chief executive of the association, argued that grocery stores needed to be distinguished from other types of retail, noting that under the original order all stores were lumped together.
Contrary to other retailers, such as clothing stores, “we are providing critical infrastructure, providing safe food to our customers,” Fong said Monday morning.
Customers should not have trouble accessing their local grocery stores under the modified cap, Fong said.