With Thanksgiving less than a week away, retailers are trying to keep up with demand while providing safe environments for customers under the new restrictions.
Some grocery stores can only operate at 50%. Big box stores like Target or Costco can only operate at 25%.
"Every day, we're changing things to keep up with what we need to do to be safe here," said Paulina Market owner Bill Begale.
Under the new restrictions, Begale has to limit the number of customers inside his small grocery store to 20. He put tents outside to cover long Thanksgiving order lines.
Begale installed a walk-up window to keep people outside and hired a security guard for crowd control. He also installed a UV lighting system inside the store to kill viruses, like the coronavirus.
At the same time, Begale said his customers are ordering more Thanksgiving dinners than ever this year. Paulina Market has had to stop taking orders until Nov. 28.
“We have more orders because now everybody is buying a turkey instead of going to one house,” said Begale. “People are making a smaller dinner and they’re keeping it just within their family.”
