100 signatures reached
To: GM of Princeton Wegmans, Kristin Reed, Health Officer, Mercer County Division of Public Health, Jill Swanson, Health Officer, West Windsor Division of Health
Princeton Wegmans: Protect your customers and workers from COVID-19!
The Wegmans Food Market store in Nassau Park Pavilion is not practicing social distancing, is not providing workers with protective gear like gloves, is not decontaminating carts, and is not limiting the number of people in the store at any given time.
The Health Officers of Mercer County and West Windsor Township should order the store to implement these measures and the store's General Manager should be doing it without being ordered. The health of workers and customers and the protection of our health care system literally depends on it.
Why is this important?
I am the father of two kids under 6 and husband to a tenure-track professor at The College of New Jersey. On Friday, March 27th, in the middle of a global pandemic of COVID-19, my wife went to get the groceries we need at the Wegmans in Nassau Park Pavilion located in West Windsor Township in order for us to continue to shelter at home until it is safe to end social distancing.
It was a shocking experience.
Wegmans had very few COVID-19 precautions in place. There were no limits on the number of people entering the store. There were no ways to sanitize the shopping carts. Workers were not wearing protective gloves or masks, nor were they practicing social distancing except at check-out. No one else in the store was practicing social distancing.
This is an immediate health risk to both customers AND workers. There is no excuse for this.
Other stores are doing this right now. The West Windsor Trader Joe's is doing everything Wegmans is not. They limit the number of people in the store at any one time. They sanitize the carts. They enforce social distancing.
And it's not just Trader Joe's. Other Wegmans stores in the chain ARE taking these measures. At least one store in Northern Virginia is also taking all the measures described above.
Tell the General Manager of the Nassau Park Pavilion Wegmans to immediately implement all COVID-19 safety measures including limiting customers, sanitizing carts and check-out lanes, providing protective equipment for workers, and enforcing social distancing throughout the store, especially during re-stocking. Tell the Health Officers for West Windsor and Mercer County New Jersey to immediately order this Wegmans store to implement these health measures.
UPDATE April 2, 2020:
I want to be clear that Wegmans corporate guidelines for COVID-19 are very clear and very good, including a number of actions around pay and sick days that prioritize their employees' well-being. But how the social distancing and sanitizing guidelines are being implemented on the ground leaves a lot to be desired. On this point, Trader Joe's is a model. Wegmans' Princeton store can and should do better in meeting their responsibilities in this moment.
You can see what Wegmans corporate guidelines are here: https://www.wegmans.com/news-media/press-releases/wegmans-response-to-covid-19-2/
How it will be delivered
We will provide links to the petition to the Health Officers listed above as well as on the social media accounts of Wegmans.