In the modern world of retail, keeping your workers and customers safe is more important than protecting your goods.

Whether it’s trying to keep your aisles clear of clutter to avoid potential injury, or enforcing stricter hygiene rules to curb the spread of illness, retail work has a lot of different safety layers to it anymore.

One commonly-overlooked method of promoting hygiene in a retail setting is through the use of proper shelving. While many retail stores have begun to implement stricter cleaning procedures and reduced capacity limits, the very surfaces you use can go a long way towards curbing the spread of any communicable diseases.

And luckily, they can be very easily adapted to an existing retail layout.

Germ-Free Shelves for Retail Stores

One of the first steps towards converting your retail shelving to something more germ-resistant is to see what sort of material it’s made out of. A lot of smaller retail outlets tend to go for something more natural and aesthetically pleasing, such as wood, but the downside to these sort of materials is that germs and bacteria can linger longer on those surfaces.

Instead, try switching to something like NSF wire shelving for a lot of your retail displays. Aluminum wire shelves are much easier to wipe down after use, and any shelf rated by the NSF will be inherently resistant to the spread of germs and bacteria.

Of course, this isn’t viable in every retail setting, so in those cases you should focus on something like metal retail shelving, or the use of metal in retail shelving systems. Harder surfaces like metal, or glass in many cases, still prove easier to clean and disinfect, which can make it easier for your team to keep up with their standard cleaning regimen.

The front of the store isn’t the only place that needs to be focused on for hygienic needs – the backroom or stockroom where the inventory lives needs to be carefully attended to as well. A lot of retail wire racks can come in handy here, due to its weight capacity and ease of cleaning, although many retail stores use steel shelves or rivet shelves for similar roles.

Whatever your chosen shelf material, the important thing is to focus on high-traffic areas and/or high-touch areas, and keep a strict cleaning schedule – the right material is still only half the battle.