Grocery stores, workers face fears, make changes as they battle spread of COVID-19
Story has been updated.
As Washington state copes with the coronavirus outbreak, grocery workers have been stocking shelves and dealing with shopping on the level of gearing up for a snowstorm.
Except this bulk-shopping never seems to end.
Add to that the worries of seeing customers who may or may not be carriers of coronavirus, and you’ve got a workforce that in many ways feels it is on the front lines every bit as much as health care workers.
Grocery, retailer changes
Area stores have reduced hours for cleaning and stocking.
Walmart, for example, announced this week that its U.S. stores are adjusting operating hours to be 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Stores that open later than 7 a.m. will continue their regular starting hours.
Walmart also has joined other grocers in offering senior shopping times before stores open on Tuesdays, starting next week.
Starting March 24, Walmart stores will host an hour-long senior shopping event every Tuesday for customers ages 60 and older, one hour before the store opens. Walmart pharmacies and vision centers also will be open at that time.
Walmart also is among retailers limiting purchases of high-demand items, including paper products, milk, eggs, cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, water, diapers, wipes, formula and baby food.
On Friday, Walmart announced it plans to hire more than 2,100 associates in Washington state to work in stores, clubs, distribution centers and fulfillment centers. It also announced plans to provide more than $365 million in cash bonuses to its hourly U.S. workers.
“Every hourly associate employed by the company as of March 1 will qualify, and it will pay out on April 2,” the retailer said in a statement sent Friday.
Earlier this week, UFCW 21 announced that UFCW 21, 367, 1439 and Teamsters 38 had reached “an understanding with Safeway/Albertsons to better support and protect grocery store workers and shoppers in this time of need due to the coronavirus.”
According to a UFCW 21 news release, the resolution includes:
▪ More flexibility for schedules to accommodate childcare.
▪ Joint hiring hall to allow for more workers to get work in the stores. (According to the National Labor Relations Board, In some industries, most jobs are filled through referrals from union hiring halls.)
▪ Up to two weeks pay for workers diagnosed with COVID-19 or workers required to self-quarantine, before needing to access sick leave and other contractual paid leave.
▪ An agreement to jointly work with state and federal government to treat grocery workers as first responders and set up a childcare fund.
▪ Expanded use of paid sick leave to cover childcare needs.
▪ Assurances that workers will not lose eligibility for medical coverage or lose vacation accrual while out on sick leave.
A similar understanding was reached with Fred Meyer/QFC. The retailers and unions also agreed to “temporarily allow the employer to bring in extra outside help to make sure we are able to serve our communities during this crisis — provided bargaining unit employees are offered hours first, including overtime.”
Workers’ coronavirus fears
Workers have taken to social media to express fears about working during these times, including worries of checking out people who appear sick and being wary of loading customers’ reusable bags out of fears they might possibly be contaminated with the virus.
As cleaning of stores and checkstands have ramped up, some heightened measures have been taking a toll in other ways.
“Because of the increased sanitation after each customer, my fingers started to bleed. I have six machines to clean. Maybe I’m too sensitive to the cleaning agent. I don’t know. But I have to endure the pain,” wrote one worker on Local 367’s Facebook page.
“I have COPD. I would like to see more protection, better gloves ....” wrote another.
Mike Solberg is a 32-year employee with Safeway who works at the retailer’s Graham store.
Solberg told The News Tribune on Thursday: “My wife’s a nurse and I work retail, so we’re both in positions that are considered high-risk. We’re staying home when we’re not working to protect our friends and others.”
He described the routine a co-worker follows when she returns home for work each day. The worker has a son with a compromised immune system.
“She’s told us that when she gets home, she goes in her laundry room, puts her clothes in the wash, showers, puts on fresh clothes and then cleans anything she touched in the house,” Solberg said.
He said March 11 and 12 was when shoppers really started ramping up bulk purchases.
“We get pretty much daily delivery from the Safeway warehouse, and it’s been depleted of some things like sanitizer and some cleaning products .... toilet paper is not necessarily coming in daily,” he said.
“The warehouse staff is working seven days a week similar to what we’re doing in stores and because load sizes have increased, truck drivers also are overtaxed obviously taking bigger loads and working long hours as well.”
More people are coming in earlier to hit the store when it is at its most restocked, he noted, and as more people seek to avoid more high-traffic times to shop.
Thursday was the first day for the store’s reserved shopping hours for seniors and those considered high-risk.
“It was pretty crazy from 7 to 9,” Solberg said.
UPDATE: On Friday, Safeway/Albertsons announced new measures to protect workers. They include installing temporary checkstand partitions, increasing closure hours for deep cleaning and increasing senior hours, among others.
“Installing plexiglass partitions in checkout lanes provides a protective barrier between customers and checkers. The 30x30 inch plexiglass ‘sneeze guards’ will be installed in all stores in Washington in the next week,” the retailer said in a statement Friday.
“During the grocery checkout process we recognize that it is difficult to maintain the recommended space for social distancing, so we wanted to take this extra step, to not only protect our associates who are constant contact with the public, but also provide our customers with extra reassurance as well,” said Karl Schroeder, president of Safeway Albertsons Seattle Division, in the news release.
Also happening at the stores:
▪ New hours of operation, now 6 a.m. to 10pm, thereby allowing 8 hours for deep cleaning each night.
▪ Checkers also may decline a customer’s reusable bags and provide them with paper or reusable plastic bags at no charge.
▪ Expanded hours designated for “vulnerable neighbors” (elderly, pregnant women and immunocompromised) each Tuesday and Thursday to start one hour earlier, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Pharmacies will be open starting at 7.a.m.
Shopping guidelines
On Thursday, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department offered guidelines for safe shopping, including:
▪ Only touch items you intend to buy and avoid putting items back on the shelf after touching them.
▪ Keep people at least the distance of a shopping cart away while you wait in line.
▪ Don’t try on clothes at retail stores.
▪ Finish your shopping quickly and don’t linger in the store.
▪ Stick to a list and avoid window shopping.
“Every business should take extra steps to disinfect surfaces and enforce social distancing,” the health department noted on its health blog.
For consumers, it advised: “Wait as long as you can to leave and then send one person to as few stores as possible.”
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 5:05 AM.
