(Reuters) – A tall, surgical mask-wearing young man stands at the entrance as customers line up outside. A sign at the door – illustrated with stick figures drawn by the co-owner’s 6-year-old daughter – warns clients they can only come in three at a time.
Each Peach Market head buyer Chris Weybright monitors curbside pickup sales while in-store customers check out on the first day of new coronavirus protocols in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, U.S., April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Erin Scott
The notice behind the cash register is starker: “Treat your visit as if it’s risking lives.”
A day spent at Each Peach Market – a boutique mini-mart in Northwest Washington’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood near the National Zoo – offers a glimpse into how grocery shopping is changing in response to the coronavirus outbreak that has upended routines around the world.
The small store has gone cashless to avoid handling potentially virus-carrying bills. The PIN pad where customers enter their debit card codes is regularly wiped down with disinfectant. Increasingly, customers are emailing in their orders and picking up bulging brown bags of groceries at the curb.
Money is flowing in – co-founder Emily Friedberg said the store was earning more this year than at the same time in 2019 despite cutting its hours in half.
But conversations with both shoppers and sho