Two Ctg supershops amp up precautions

It's yet to be done by everyone, but a few supershops in the port city are standing out by employing exemplary cautionary measures to protect against the possible spread of coronavirus, earning praise of customers.

As fear grips city dwellers about probable lockdown in the coming days, different supershops have been experiencing sudden buying spree over the last few days. In these trying times, these supershops have started taking measures like sanitising customers' hands and providing equipment to staff.

Khulshi Mart, the city's oldest super shop, located in a neighbourhood that houses foreign missions, schools, universities and a culturally diverse community, has already taken some pioneering steps in this regard.

Since last week, shop authorities have started mandatory screening of all its customers with hand held infrared thermometer and spraying them with hand sanitiser before entering store premises.

While visiting the supershop yesterday, this correspondent saw two staffers taking on this duty while anothere was busy disinfecting trolley handlers.

Md Shaker Hossain, maintenance in charge of Mart Promoters Ltd, the company behind Khulshi Mart, said they are cleaning the premises and floors every two hours to keep the outlet disinfected and were discouraging customers who were found to have fever.

Additionally, all store staff have been provided with hand gloves and masks, with mandatory hand sanitising during each entry and exit to go with it, he said.

Similar cautionary steps have been taken across all 10 outlets of K-Bakery, a sister concern of Khulshi Mart, he added.

Nusrat Jahan, a resident of the area, who came to Khulshi Mart for some grocery items said the measures are praiseworthy.

Staff at Shopping Bag, a super shop near Kazir Dewry area, were also found spraying customers with liquid disinfectant during entry.

Mohammed Ariful Islam, Senior Supervisor of the outlet, said they started this programme on March 13. All store staff have been provided with masks, he added.

However, such steps were yet to be seen in other shops, Kamal Hossain, an entrepreneur, lamented.

When visiting a few other super shops, this correspondent did not see any such measures, where customers were seen entering and exiting store premises casually. However, some staffers were seen wearing masks while serving customers.

This scenario was seen in popular super shops Shwapno and Agora's outlets at Golpahar Mor and Nasirabad. 

However, Md Abdullah Al-Mamun, outlet in-charge of Agora, denied complete negligence and said they are keeping hand sanitiser bottles at the entrance and at every counter so that customers can use it.

Masud Parvez, a customer, stressed the need to take more precautionary steps at super shops, since a good number of people gather here everyday.