Publics play it safe with masks, gloves, distance

Public dealership groups are adopting health and safety precautions in their stores as operations continue during the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a sampling of what some are doing.

• AutoNation Inc., the nation's largest dealership group, is providing masks, gloves and sanitizer, along with pens intended to be used just once to sign paperwork. CEO Mike Jackson told shareholders in April that "retail has changed forever" because of the virus.
• Asbury Automotive Group Inc., the seventh-largest new-vehicle retailer in the U.S., ordered 300,000 face masks in April, enough to provide protection for its nearly 6,000 employees for two months, CEO David Hult told Automotive News.

The company followed early guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that face masks wouldn't be necessary. But then, the guidance changed, and U.S. manufacturers were running low on supplies. So Asbury selected a company in China to avoid tapping product lines intended for medical personnel responding to the COVID-19 crisis, Hult said.

"You feel guilty buying them because you're taking them away from first responders," he said. "We went that route because we didn't want to take away from the community."

• Sonic Automotive Inc. told Automotive News last week that because none of its dealerships has closed during the pandemic, the nation's sixth-largest new-vehicle retailer has already implemented social distancing requirements, and employees wear masks and change gloves when they move on and help another customer.

Sonic CEO David Smith said about 10 Sonic employees nationally have been confirmed to have the virus. The company does not have plans to offer COVID-19 testing for employees, Smith said, but it has not ruled it out.

"All of those commonsense, social distance playbook processes are all in place in our stores and will be for the foreseeable future," Sonic President Jeff Dyke said, "if not ongoing forever."

Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.