ATLANTA — Kroger announced Tuesday that its Atlanta Division, which oversees Georgia, South Carolina and eastern Alabama, has made more than 3,000 hires as grocery stores have become a vital outlet for Americans during the coronavirus outbreak.
The grocery chain also said all of its stores under the Atlanta Division have now installed plexiglass barriers at registers.
In a release, the company said 500 of the 3,166 hires were specifically to address its pick-up service, which is now available for free around the country.
“We are continuing to hire new associates to ensure customers will have access to the food and supplies they need to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to provide job opportunities to those individuals who have lost jobs in hard-hit industries," Felix Turner, the manager of corporate affairs for Kroger’s Atlanta Division, said in the release. “Many of these new associates are being deployed in service areas such as Grocery Pick-Up, which will give more customers access to this high-demand service.”
Additionally, Kroger said it was instituting a customer limit at stores nationally at 50% of building code capacity. It is also working out obtaining masks and issuing guidance on them for employees.
"Associates may also wear their own mask, 'official face masks' or they may wear homemade cloth masks per the CDC and White House guidance," the release said. "N-95 respirator masks and dust masks are not recommended."
The new limit on customers in a store at a time takes effect today, April 7.
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