Cj59 said "In my experience a staff member might be in the back for maybe half an hour, doing paperwork or having a break. I don’t know of any small retail store where a person spends their whole shift in the back. And that’s really not my point. I was asking why staff members don’t count. They should count as a person in the store. "
That's fair enough. I know when I've worked small retail, there might be 3 of us working but rarely would all 3 be on the floor at the same time - usually 1 was at cash, 1 was helping customers and 1 was doing paperwork/stock/whatever. But each store operates differently, so obviously not all will be like that.
As for the staff "counting", I understand what you're saying. I don't know if the staff counts or not for big box, although reading the orders (I went and doubled-checked as I was starting to doubt myself), it clearly says that they must "ensure members of the public [...] are able to maintain a separation of at least 2 metres from other members of the public."
So that's the answer. Staff are technically not "members of the public", but customers are. Ergo, staff numbers don't count towards the capacity limits, which limits the amount of members of the public to 25% of the usual capacity (which is a calculation based on fire code limits I think, and a square footage thing too).
The current health order is available at
https://www.gov.mb.ca/asset_library/en/proactive/2020_2021/orders-soe-01282021.pdf
Just also wanted to point out that the 5-person thing I have mentioned in previous posts are not specified in this order, but I know they've talked about it at press conferences. I think that might hark back to the square footage calculation, which is contained somewhere else but I don't have to time to go digging for it. It was an accommodation for and recognition of smaller businesses having an easier time policing the 2m thing, so even if your 25% thing made you under-5, you were allowed 5.