Grocery Store Clerks are Heroes Too

By AZIAH NEWCOMBE

” 2 out ” . ” Okay let about ten more people in the lines are short and the aisles are starting to clear”.Every day noon, Ashley Wary enters the Whole Foods Store in Paramus and heads into her part-time jobs.  Before she punches her card, Wary stops at the  table in the front where an employee checks each worker’s temperature. After temperature checks, Wary sanitizes her hands and grab a face mask and a set of gloves before clocking in. There are so many cases in the area that Wary is afraid to slip up so she protects herself at all times.

” I can’t wait until this is all over. I’m tired of checking before going to the time clock. I feel like the customers should have to go through a check as well”

COVID-19 is basically a severe case of the flu and it attacks you immune system and messes you up completely most don’t experience symptoms until its too late. This deadly virus has forced people to quarantine for weeks since March.  Most businesses are closed except those deemed essential like Grocery stores,Pharmacies, and hospitals.  Frontline workers are typically the doctors and nurses who work in the hospitals saving lines, but there are other types of essential workers who risk their lives and health everyday to make sure everyone else can provide for their families back at home. Essential workers, specifically grocery store clerks, are  as much as major frontline workers firefighters, policemen and women, or even nurses and doctors. But these grocery store clerk aren ‘t as recognized for their work checking out customers at food chains. Typically a grocery store clerk at whole foods makes $15 dollars an hour, but since the virus has started the pay has increased to $17 an hour. However the raise in pay will be gone by May 17, 2020. Most employees are now working eight hour shifts to help support the needs of their families. They put up with complaints about the fact that the store isn’t as protected as another supermarket the customer has been to and they deal with rude customers who treat them differently to protect themselves. Those are he customers who throw the money on the counter.

In stores like Whole Foods, the operation has changed to accommodate COVID-19.  Operating hours have changed to 7 am.-8.a.m.for senior hours only so that the elderly can get all their needs before the general public comes in at 9 a.m.

When the general public  is allowed in from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.,  there is a count taking place at the door and the max limit for the store is 75 people. Once the store hits its limit, a line forms at the side of the building and only a few are let in at a time depending on the amount of people who are leaving.

To ensure that everything is clean for the customers Whole Foods has a cashier assistance go out and get all shopping carts from outside and take them into the lobby of the store to be disinfected and put back on the rack inside for the next customer’s use.  The same goes for the hand baskets and door handles of the major fridges throughout the store for workers and customers.

For the safety of other customers, the store does not take returns of any item not even the milk bottles that on a regular day would be returned for $2  back as a thank you for recycling. For the safety of  Whole Foods cashiers, they aren’t allowed to bag groceries if customers bring their own bags from home.  A plastic shield in front of the register  limits direct contact with customers.

There are some customers who treat the employees kind and some customers who treat the employees horrible. Despite the pandemic,  some customers complain and call management because the store isn’t stocked like it would have been a few months ago. Employees have no control over how stocked the store becomes.  Items that the public needs the most aren’t coming in as quick as they disappear such as toilet paper, but there isn’t anything the workers in the store can do about it except wait just like the customers are doing.

Workers are being treated properly by the rest of the staff but when it comes to the customers they’re ungrateful and treat them poorly. The customer and employee contact matters the most considering that’s where most of their interactions come from on a day to day basis.. Most of the staff at Whole Foods foods market – if not all – wish that customers were more appreciative of their services.

Frontline workers point of view:

The worst thing is knowing others are safe at home, collecting $2000, while we risk our lives and don’t make nearly that much, even with the $2 raise. I’m supporting my whole household on my lousy 20hrs/weekhttps://t.co/KKp5wc6Cmg#canlab #cdnpoli #covidcanada #EssentialWorkers

— Rankandfile.ca (@rankandfileca) April 20, 2020

Cashiers and their stories:

The grocery cashiers have different reasons for working during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they share the need to earn a living and risk the same exposure to the deadly virus. Here are their stories.

Jamie Ramierez, 23, Whole Foods market cashier said that she self quarantines at home and only comes to work. Her mom is also a frontline worker and she’s a nurse so  Ramirez doesn’t   live with her mom right now to protect herself and coworkers.  She sanitizes her hands and face mask before walking into work and after using the time clock.  She feels customers don’t consider the well-being of the cashiers.

“ These customers don’t care about us. They throw their items at us to be rung up and demand that we find items that clearly aren’t available,” Ramirez said. “When the store is closing they continue to shop as if we don’t have a curfew time or as if we don’t want to get home back to our families”

Natalia , 20, Whole Foods market cashier  believes that she isn’t able to work under these conditions that the government has set for the virus and the ongoing pandemic. She isn’t able to deal with the harsh treatment from the customers and their disgusting ways.  she doesn’t care about not being paid while she is taking a leave until this pandemic blows over.

“These customers are disgusting. I’m not coming back to work until the end of April,” Natalia said.

Ayshian Black, 23, Whole Foods market maintenance team  worker usually cleans up the bathroom and sweeps the floors, but ever since the pandemic started she’s been cleaning the door handles to the refrigerators in the store.  But occasionally Black is asked to come work on the register from time to time due to the excessive call outs and other coworkers not wanting to work during the pandemic in fear that they will be infected.

“ I hate working at the register. The customers are rude and don’t care about our safety. They still reach behind our shield and throw their bags at us even after we explain that we cannot bag for them due to the pandemic,” Black said.  “I prefer working maintenance, no one bothers me there.”