An employee at the Agoura Hills Trader Joe’s tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the store to briefly shut down on Saturday, May 2. The employee was working in the store earlier that day. On Sunday, the location reopened.

“As a grocery or food retail worker, potential sources of exposures include close contact for prolonged periods of time with a customer with COVID-19 and touching your nose, mouth, or eyes after handling items, cash, or merchandise that customers with COVID-19 have touched,” an official CDC post stated. “Grocery and food retail establishment employers should have a COVID-19 health and safety plan to protect employees.”

While closed, the store went through a process of deep cleaning and sanitization. 

“There is nothing more important to us than the health and safety of our Crew Members and customers,” Trader Joe’s stated in a customer update on their website. “We have made sure all Crew Members at the respective locations have been informed and understand the steps to take to best safeguard their own health and the health of their community.”

OPHS mom and community member Beth Felsen takes a different perspective on the issue. 

“I just pray that half-day was all that was needed to 100% clean and disinfect every single square inch of the store [as well as] each and every surface and store product that the virus could have potentially landed upon,” Felsen wrote to the Talon.