Grocery Store Safety Stats and Facts

FACTS

  1. Much like other retail stores, employees in grocery stores face a multitude of risks in their day-to-day duties:
    • Moving merchandise, displays, etc. which can lead to strains, sprains and other injuries related to lifting
    • Falling from heights (stacking shelves that require the use of a ladder, as an example)
    • Being struck by a product falling off a shelf
    • Slips, trips and falls, or cuts from opening boxes with knives/sharps
  1. In the grocery store industry, the presence of these risk factors increases the potential for injuries and illnesses.
    • Muscle strains and back injuries that occur from repeated use or overexertion
    • Tendinitis
    • Carpal tunnel syndrome
    • Rotator cuff injuries
    • Epicondylitis (i.e. tennis elbow)
    • Trigger finger that occurs from repeated use of a single finger

STATS

  • (SOII) has ranked grocery stores as one of the nine industries having 100,000 or more injury and illness cases . These nine industries accounted for 29 percent of the 5.6 million cases reported for all private industry.
  • The grocery store industry’s injury and illness rate for total recordable cases was 8.4 per 100 full-time workers, compared with rates of 5.9 for all retail trade and 6.1 for private industry as a whole. Approximately 187,400 total injury and illness cases were recorded for grocery stores, with more than half (54 percent) involving cases without lost workdays. Of the 86,000 cases that did involve lost workdays, 55,000 required workers to miss one or more days of work, while 31,000 required workers to be restricted to light duties or to work a shortened schedule.
  • 33% of all work-related injuries and illnesses are a result of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).
  • About 96 percent of the grocery store cases occurring were classified as occupational injuries; the remaining 4 percent were illnesses.
  • Repeated trauma cases accounted for 73 percent of the total number of illness cases in the industry, considerably higher than the proportion for all retail trade industries (50 percent). Repeated trauma includes carpal tunnel syndrome and other motion-related disorders and usually involves the hand, wrist, elbow, or shoulder. For the past 5 years, the grocery store industry has ranked among the industries with the highest number of repeated trauma cases.