New norms buying clothes
Shopping for clothes used to be a relatively simple process three months ago: walk into a store, try on a number of items, buy what you want, leave the rest.
As retailers begin to re-open nationwide after months of shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, a few more steps are being added to the customer’s shopping experience.
Waiting in line to reduce in-store traffic, putting on hand sanitizer once you get in, and following physical distancing guide markers will be commonplace as Canadian shops and boutiques try to keep customers and employees safe.
But experts say the risk of picking up the novel coronavirus while shopping remains.
“If many people are touching the items — and that will be the case — then yes, it could be a concern,” said Satinder Kaur Brar, an expert in environmental biotechnology and decontamination at York University.
Diane Brisebois, the CEO of the Retail Council of Canada, says stores are putting more emphasis on training their staff to sanitize high-touch areas like cash terminals after each client passes through, as well as “strict, regular sanitation” of surfaces throughout the store.
But what about the clothing itself? Contact with clothes can be separated into “two types of touching,” University of Toronto epidemiologist Colin Furness says: casual browsing when looking for a size, and the more intensive contact that comes with trying pieces on.
Because viruses don’t live as long on soft materials as they do on hard surfaces, Furness says clothes are typically safer to navigate. But touching each hanger as you’re shuffling through racks, and handling zippers or buttons when trying garments on can be a different story.
“There’s a potential (for transmission) there, no question,” Furness said. “On zipper handles and buttons, you can expect the virus to last longer than a day.”
Most retailers are still allowing people to try on their apparel — Roots is one that’s not — and Brisebois said fitting room capacity will be cut down to half to ensure physical distancing in those areas.
The cleaning of fitting rooms is also of high importance.
“Employees will sanitize the change room after each customer,” Brisebois said. “So they clean the sitting area, the hooks where you hang your clothes, the door handle, and so on.”
Quarantining unpurchased clothing that’s been tried on, or steaming them before they’re put back out on racks is another measure being enacted by stores.