Smith’s limiting number of customers inside stores

Smith’s has cut in half the number of customers it’s allowing into its stores at one time.

The change took effect today, the grocery store chain, through its parent firm Kroger Co., said in a news release.

The move was made to help adhere to social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the speed of the coronavirus.

The standard building capacity for grocery stores is one person for every 60 square feet,the company said. Under the new Kroger guidelines, that ratio has been reduced to one person for every 120 square feet.

Smith’s stores are using sensors to track the number of customers entering and departing stores. Those sensors were already in place, the company said.

“Kroger’s introduction of customer capacity limits is one more way we are doing our part to flatten the curve while operating as an essential business,” Mary Ellen Adcock, Kroger’s senior vice president of operations, said in a statement. “During this national pandemic, we are committed to adopting preventive measures to help protect the safety of our associates, customers and communities.”

Smith’s has about three-dozen stores in the Las Vegas Valley. Kroger is an Ohio-based company with multiple grocery store brands across the U.S.