Many people associate slip and fall accidents with icy sidewalks or rickety railings - not with retail stores such as supermarkets. However, the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) recently released a shocking study: grocery stores, supermarkets, and food marts, have over $450 million in legal expenses and court settlements each year due to slip and fall incidents and premises liability cases.

There are a number of reasons for so many slip and fall incidents - there are many substances that can spill or fall on the floor causing accidents, and the floors of supermarkets usually have slick surfaces and high polishes, making them naturally slippery and making it difficult to see wet surfaces.

There are a number of ways that these cases occur in grocery stores:

· You are looking at a distracting display case when you trip and fall on an obstacle.

· You slip and fall on a spilled jar of sauce or other slippery substance - spilled food that should have been clean up or marked as a hazard until it was taken care of.

· Store items that have been stacked incorrectly, loosely, or dangerously topple on to you causing serious injury.

· A wet spot in the produce aisle or freezer section caused by faulty equipment causes you to slip, or the entrance or exit to a store is wet with snow or water that is tracked in by patrons.


The NFSI study also found that those most likely to become injured in a slip and fall accident in a grocery store are women over 60. The most common location for these falls is in the entry way to stores, where wet spots collect and where the pedestrian traffic is high.

It is important to note that both customers and employees can slip and fall in grocery stores, and that both should immediately inform management about the fall and then seek medical assistance.