As New Zealand celebrates the move to Level 1, Countdown will no longer be limiting the number of customers in its stores and will open all SCOs and service checkouts as required.
Customers will no longer need to queue when stores are busy and can go back to their usual shopping hours. Hand sanitiser will remain in place at all stores, with customers encouraged to continue to follow basic hygiene procedures by washing and sanitising their hands before doing their grocery shopping.
All self-service checkouts will re-open, and all service checkouts will be available for customers as required. From tomorrow, customers will again be able to BYO containers to use at Countdown’s in-store deli, meat and seafood counters.
Countdown’s General Manager Health and Safety, Kiri Hannifin, says these latest changes will see stores get back to their pre-Covid-19 state, with the exception of some additional hygiene measures. “For the most part, shopping in our stores will very much feel like things are back to how they were before, and customers will be able to pop in and out of our stores quickly whenever they need to top up on their groceries – we’ll be packing bags again for our customers if they would like us to; people can BYO bags for Pick Up, all our SCOs will be open, and queuing controls outside the store will no longer be needed,” says Kiri Hannifin.
“However, a few key things will stay in place including the hand sanitising stations at the front entrance. The plastic screens at checkouts will also initially remain in place just as an extra hygiene measure for our team.
“It’s been an immensely busy time for our stores and we’ve really appreciated the kindness that our customers have continued to show our team. Our team of 20,000 Kiwis is excited to be getting things back to normal and serving our three million customers each week,” Hannifin says.
