In the Time of COVID-19, Customer Safety Sells

Food retailers including farmers’ markets are working to comply with new guidance on selling product.  Some have moved to some combination of online ordering, pre-order via phone, pre-packed pickup only, or delivery.   For those that have embraced online ordering with either delivery or pre-packed pickup, they have seen huge increases in sales.  Extension hosted a few local market meetings over the past week, and the anecdotal  evidence suggests that for those operations that have fully adopted and communicated COVID safety measures, business has been good....safety sells.

A butcher in Philadelphia that had focused a good portion of their business on supplying the foodservice channel has moved to a delivery, pre-order pickup model.  With good fortune, they had been experimenting with online and had to rush to get it in place for this pandemic.  They have seen record sales over the past days.  They sold to the regular retail customers but also had a number of new customers.  Another Farmers’ Market in SE PA had also moved to online.  They had pre-order pickup and sales were brisk.

But for many, they will have to work out of the traditional model where shoppers will come to the site to purchase and these operations will adopt the state guidance.  One traditional market reported that sales were down, but regular customers did come out.  They had rudimentary safety systems in place including spacing and hand disinfectant, but they did not seem that they did not communicate their plan well.  One market manager whose market had not opened wondered if it was worth the effort against the risk of getting themselves or their volunteers sick.



Adopting online sales is not an easy thing to do, and many will lack time now that market season is upon us, they will not have expertise with computer systems, or will have a hard time choosing the myriad of online computer systems. 

We see the same in the supermarkets, and I bet you have seen it as well.  Operations that have tight measures seem to be busy  One of the larger national establishments in our local area had little controls in place (no sanitizer for the carts - ran out, and no visible signage for spacing at checkout or throughout the store) and the store was visibly less crowded.

The take-away through from the Market Manager sessions is that safety and security are a selling points in the time of COVID.    If people feel that a venue will protect their safety, then people will feel comfortable to shop.  To address one person’s concerns about not opening due to risk….if one puts in all the safety protocols that the manager feels they need to have to feel safe themselves and  they communicate that to their audience via social media…then it is likely that those customers will feel safe and will be more likely to attend.  Certainly, ordering online with delivery is the safest, and this has taken off for the shops we spoke with.  The same can be said for prepacked items for immediate pickup.  But for those traditional shops, they need to establish strict protocols and communicate it to their customers.  And while it may feel a bit draconian, I think it will be well received by their customers.  In the end, it will be far better to go over the top rather than to appear to be lax in any element of their standard practices.