Fylde Council Leader, Cllr Karen Buckley visited Sainsbury’s in St Annes to discuss the current Covid safety measures in place and how staff are coping during the current lockdown regulations. Staff in our supermarkets are keyworkers and have played such an important role throughout the pandemic keeping the shelves stocked with food, marking the floors to help shoppers adhere to social distancing to keep themselves and other safe, and controlling the flow of people. There’s sanitiser at the entrances and a friendly greeting at the door to check masks are in place and to advise people to shop on their own if they can.
Martin Gallagher, Store Manager, said:
“We are carefully monitoring the number of people coming into the store and have made it as safe an environment as possible. In this latest lockdown we have noticed, again, that many of our more elderly customers are choosing to shop early or during quiet times. Most people respect the restrictions with good humour, and we thank them for their patience. My staff are doing a tremendous job in extremely difficult circumstances and I’m proud of my team for their forbearance.”
Council Leader, Cllr Karen Buckley, added:
“Sainsbury’s has always been a safe space in my experience, and I was delighted to meet Martin and to thank him and his staff for the way they have taken Covid security seriously. Although lots of people have switched to ordering online there’s still a high demand for personal shopping and we rely upon our supermarkets to be a safe place to visit.”
“In the last two weeks our Environmental Health team have been tasked to visit all supermarkets and ‘express’ stores in Fylde to carry out an audit of their Covid compliance measures. Most premises have picked up on the national message to do more and have really stepped up, which is good to see.”
Businesses can find out what guidance support is available in Fylde by visiting our dedicated business support web page here.