The Mecklenburg County ABC Board has put a protocol into place after several ABC store employees tested positive for Covid-19. So far, five stores have had to temporarily close for sterilization: Rocky River Road, Park Road, Statesville Avenue, South Boulevard, Morrocroft Shopping Center, and Ballantyne. 

“As one colleague described Covid, it’s like the great fog is just seeping in slowly,” Mecklenburg County ABC CEO Keva Walton says. “Many of us didn’t know anyone, then maybe we knew somebody who knew somebody, and now we know somebody directly that’s been impacted by the virus. And we are not immune. So we’ve had maybe three or four stores where a person was positively tested. And so that sets in motion a whole series of protocols.”

After an employee is confirmed to have Covid, the store they work at is immediately closed, Walton says. The entire staff is then tested, and required to quarantine for 14 days regardless of whether they test positive. If they do test positive, they need a doctor’s note clearing them to return to work after the quarantine.

A crew is brought in to sterilize the store, setting off a fog that cleans all surfaces but must set for 24 hours. The store can then reopen.

Several employees work at multiple stores, Walton says, and when a store reopens, its usual staff is still quarantining. To get the store back in operation, it must be staffed with employees who usually work at a different location. Walton says they’ve been able to get by so far, but if more locations are forced to quarantine staff, they may have to close some stores simply due to a lack of staffing. 

“We’ve been fortunate so far not to have to resort to limiting the number of stores that are open,” Walton says. 

Walton says the ABC Board hasn’t yet determined which stores would be closed first should the need arise, but it would likely be based on proximity to another store. Some stores also present larger challenges for restaurants; the Park Road location, for example, serves a large amount of restaurant, or mixed beverage, accounts. When the store was forced to close, those mixed beverage clients were sent to the main warehouse on North Tryon Street.

Because of current website issues, customers are made aware of closures mostly by signage on the ABC Stores’ doors. There is currently a 10-person maximum in each store, something Walton anticipates keeping in practice for the near future, as well as the state-mandate requiring masks. —Kristen Wile

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