Boise’s Costco Suspends Food Samples Due to COVID-19 Concerns

Plenty of stores in the Treasure Valley have been hit hard over coronavirus concerns. From the pictures we've seen, Costco seems to have taken the brunt of it. 

Late last week, USA Today reported that Costco stores were pulling their popular food sample stations from stores in the United States. When the paper went to print, it was unclear whether they were being pulled from all stores or just stores that are located in states that have seen a significant spike in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

At this time, 41 people have been tested for the virus in Idaho. 10 are still being monitored by public health agencies but there have been ZERO confirmed cases in the Gem State. With that in mind, I reached out to one of my friends who works at Costco to confirm whether or not our store was following suit.

She confirmed that the Boise warehouse has suspended sampling until further notice as a prevention measure. The team normally dedicated to demonstrations is helping with other duties like sanitizing carts, helping with go backs and duties in the clothing department.

If you are shopping at Costco, I encourage you to be kind to the employees. They've dealt with member getting upset because the store is out of toilet paper and being frustrated because they've had to place limits on the amount of certain products like toilet paper and bottled water. It's not their fault the store is running low on those supplies and they're trying to manage the COVID-19 situation with as much grace as possible. A little patience goes a long way.

Have you seen any other businesses in the Treasure Valley make some adjustments to the way they do business? Does your office have any sort of prevention steps put in place?