The retail sector consist of multiple industries, however we mainly focus on the B&M (brick and mortar) shops and supermarkets. This is because our products won’t have an impact on the online shopping environment. Within the B&M shops and supermarkets, the fear of contamination has grown massively over the last couple of months. More and more people are becoming afraid to touch certain surfaces without it being disinfected beforehand or immediately disinfecting their hand afterwards. This is mostly the result of the current Corona crisis. Before the current pandemic, most people did not seem to care wether a surface was clean or not. However, this view has completely changed over the last few months and hygiene has become utmost important for a big part of the population.

As a consequence, most shops now offer disinfection sprays and some paper towels so customers can disinfect some of the high risk surfaces themselves. Nonetheless, most of the frequently touched surfaces in B&M shops and supermarkets are still not being disinfected after every use. They are maybe disinfected once or twice a day, making them a potential source of microbial growth and therefore also a contamination risk. A list of most high risk surfaces within the retail industry are:

  • Shopping trolleys
  • Shopping baskets
  • Doorknobs and doorhandels
  • Sliding doors from cabinets/ freezers
  • Self-service payment counters
  • Pin/payment devices
  • Checkout/pay desk

All these objects have a high cross contamination level and only with frequent cleaning can this be maintained to a high hygienic standard. Obviously this is also a risk factor for the staff members, as they work continually with the same items. Therefore, using PretainCoatâ„¢ on all these high risk surfaces is not only a more cost and time efficient solution, but also a safer one for both staff and customers.

In addition, B&M shops and supermarkets could also install a couple of Ablatum ION, depending on the size of their store. This will not only reduce the contamination risks which could take place via aerosols floating through the air, but will also be visual support to show that the stores have taken precautions in order to create a safe shopping environment. This could result in a more comfortable shopping environment for both staff and clients, which has become a crucial selling point in attracting customers in todays society.