The biggest lesson in the situation is redefining the hygiene of
the shopping environment, which will now be an ongoing exercise, says Big
Bazaar CEO Sadashiv Nayak.
The lockdown
announced last month imposed curbs on everyday life without precedent in
peacetime. After the initial shock, retailers have found ways to deal with the
supply chain constraints, upped the ante on in-store people, product and
hygiene management. “While production and distribution of non-essential sectors
have come to a virtual standstill, essential goods retailers have kept the ball
rolling, pinning their hopes on the government to keep their supply chain
undisturbed,” says R N Iyer, CEO and founder of Vayana Network, a platform that
connects corporates and their supply chain to financial institutions.
To start with
organised retailers
such as Big Bazaar, Spencer's and Reliance Retail have all announced that their
supermarkets and convenience shops would limit customer numbers, though the
limits are different for different branches based on the footfalls and the
number of tills, with shop managers using their judgement on customer numbers
and when the shop is at capacity. Many have enforced a one-in-one-out policy to
enforce social distancing. Some are also using volunteers or marshals to help
manage queues outside shops and remind customers about the government’s social
distancing rules.
Two things stood
out from our conversation with retailers — that the ones with online delivery
and click and collect services are working at full capacity. And that
supermarkets are asking customers to pay with cards or any other form of
virtual money rather than cash at tills as a way to help contain the spread of
the virus.
Now the thing to
remember is, that these retailers have to tackle challenges at two ends — the
front end or the shop floor and the back end or the supply chain. The front end
is relatively easy —it's more about tackling store traffic and hygiene.
Sadashiv Nayak, CEO, Big Bazaar, says people are going to congregate at food
stores and so the prime focus is on maintaining hygiene and taking safety
precautions. “We are making sure we don’t have too many people at the store at
a time. So they are being asked to queue up outside the Big Bazaar stores,
maintain a distance of one metre from each other and even inside the store, we
are ensuring there is no crowding. There is mandatory temperature checking at the
entry point. This gives confidence to the authorities that Big Bazaar is
well-placed to serve consumer needs.”
