As the pandemic intensifies
Horribly sad and also terrifying.
Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country.
You can see how it’s both. Horribly sad for the workers and terrifying for all of us (the workers included) because how will we get food.
A Trader Joe’s worker in Scarsdale, New York, a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Maryland, and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19 in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday. In March, a Seattle neighborhood grocer died from the effects of COVID-19.
Though more than 40 states have ordered nonessential businesses to close and told residents to stay home to stem the spread of the virus, supermarkets are among the retailers that remain open. Thousands of grocery employees have continued to report to work as U.S. infections and death rates continue to climb, with many reporting long shifts and extra workloads to keep up with spiking demand. Many workers say they don’t have enough protective gear to deal with hundreds of customers a day. Dozens of grocery workers have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks.
They should be getting hazard pay.
At my local supermarket there’s a strict queuing system with 2m gaps marked out and only a handful of people allowed into the shop at a time. There are also queues at the checkouts. The staff are marshalling people in, around and out of the shop, things they were not hired or trained to do.
They are doing this with cheer and good humour. It must be highly stressful, especially since some customers are badly behaved or disrespectful, but they are doing a brilliant job and trying to keep each other and the customers cheerful.
They should definitely be getting hazard pay.
We have the lines marked out at the checkout counters, but that’s about it. There aren’t even any signs saying stay the hell away from each other. One of our grocery stores recently implemented plexiglass shields, which I hope will help; I don’t know. But on my last trip to the grocery store, it was a nightmare, with oblivious people doing everything they could to come within inches of me, walking right up to employees and standing inches away from them to ask questions, etc. I was in the grocery store for about 30 minutes, and it wore me out trying to maintain distance. I can only imagine what it must be like to be there all the time.
They absolutely should be getting hazard pay. I’m really at a loss for what the “best” way to get food is: (1) going to the market & trying to maintain distance & safe practice, (2) order online for pickup, or (3) order online for delivery. We’ve done (1) and (3) (with lavish tipping), but I’d love to know what the preferences of grocery employees are. (2) and (3) involve extra work, but less direct contact – so may be preferable (with generous tipping since the stores themselves don’t seem to be acknowledging the risks). This should be a huge concern for everyone – we will need reliable supplies of food for weeks/months & can’t treat store employees as virus fodder.