A view of distance stickers reading ‘stay safe’ placed at a supermarket in Dubai. AFP

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

Major malls and hypermarkets are allowed to open during the mandatory 2-week closure of all commercial centres across the country. The managements of all malls havee devised a number of measures to maintain high hygiene and sanitising efforts to provide a safe shopping experience in their outlets.

In this regard, Dr. Suhail Al-Bastaki, Director of Happiness and Marketing Department at Union Coop, affirmed that “Union Coop is the first retail outlet that established the ‘safe distance’ markers in its branches for shoppers to ensure a unique and safe shopping experience.

Talking about this unique and useful initiative undertaken by Union Coop, he explained: “Union Coop management is routinely washing and sterilising the shopping carts with water, soap and sterilisation materials, in addition to sterilising the handles of the shopping carts continuously to ensure the safety and health of their visitors. Cleaners were allocated in all the sales outlets of Union Coop, to clean the carts before and after use. These initiatives come in addition to the deployment of ‘wall-mounted sanitiser dispenser pods’ at the entrance of showrooms in all Union Coop branches so that the shoppers can use them free of cost to sterilise their hands continuously, as a part of the precautionary measures to provide additional means of protection for consumers while shopping.”

About the application of health and safety standards in Union Coop, Al Bastaki added: “Union Coop is keen on applying the latest, at the same time highest public health and safety standards in all its branches to provide products and goods that are in line with the international specifications and requirements. Furthermore, our consumers can be assured of the fact that all our front-end staff follow appropriate standards of hygiene and sterilisation. We will be organising workshops for the employees in cooperation with the competent authorities on how to prevent coronavirus and its spread.”

Dr. Al-Bastaki stressed that “Union Coop is pursuing additional measures in cases of home delivery, to ensure safety and security of consumers.

“Additionally, the delivery officer is committed to taking adequate health precautions at all times, which includes ‘immediate work stoppage’ in case of symptoms of ‘flu’ such as fever, cough or any other symptoms, Routine hand-washing with water, soap or approved sterilisation disinfectants before and after each operation. All the staff have been briefed and trained to avoid contact with face, nose, mouth, eyes and use masks, gloves and take other necessary safety measures to ensure product safety and security,” he said.