19 Things You Should Stop Doing at the Grocery Store in the Age of Coronavirus

Grocery workers are some of the unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, and you can show your appreciation by practicing better habits on your next trip to the supermarket. Courtesy of BuzzFeed, here are 19 things that make grocery workers’ jobs even harder during this stressful time, and what you can do to lighten their workload:

  1. Don’t bring your whole family to the store — come alone if you can.
  2. Don’t get in an employee’s personal space.
  3. Don’t ignore any markers on the floor that encourage social distancing.
  4. Don’t go to the store if you feel sick.
  5. Don’t give employees unsolicited advice on how to protect themselves.
  6. Don’t come to the store “just to get out of the house.”
  7. Don’t touch stuff you don’t intend to buy.
  8. Don’t tell employees how “lucky” they are to have a job.
  9. Don’t complain about items being out of stock.
  10. Don’t ask them to “check in the back” for out-of-stock items, either.
  11. Don’t complain to your cashier about having to touch the keypad to complete your transaction.
  12. Don’t try to sanitize the credit card machine before touching it.
  13. Don’t fight with other customers over hard-to-find items.
  14. Don’t complain about the store’s new hours.
  15. If your store has set up special shopping hours for elderly, pregnant, or immunocompromised customers, don’t violate them.
  16. Don’t whine about store limits on how much toilet paper or hand sanitizer you can buy.
  17. Don’t pay with cash if you have the option of using a credit/debit card.
  18. Don’t tell employees that you think all these new precautions are an “overreaction” or “unnecessary.”
  19. Just don’t be rude!