Need work? Grocers, delivery services still hiring amid coronavirus pandemic
After the cascading waves of layoffs in the first few weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, a few “essential” industries are offering at least a temporary lifeline for workers.
Hiring announcements in the past few days have emerged nationwide to help shift the workforce from dine-in restaurant, hospitality and general retail, some of the hardest hit industries, to grocery, distribution and delivery services.
New demands for social distancing and Washington’s “stay-at-home” order to slow the spread of the virus in the state have put pressure on stores to ramp up online grocery options, as well as pickup/delivery.
For example, Safeway/Albertsons, in a news release Tuesday said it now offers “contact-free” delivery.
“We’ve created ‘Contact Free’ delivery procedures for our team and have changed our signature processes so that our delivery drivers can sign for our customers when delivering orders,” the grocer said. “This helps reduce traffic in stores. If our delivery service cannot fulfill an order, Instacart also delivers for Safeway and Albertsons, and has maintained their ‘Rush Order’ service.”
Here’s a roundup of some of the latest hiring announcements:
▪ Safeway/Albertsons: Hiring thousands, particularly in Western Washington and Oregon. Go to albertsonscompanies.com/careers/safeway-careers.html.
▪ Fred Meyer/QFC: Parent company Kroger is hiring more than 10,000 nationwide. Go to jobs.kroger.com/.
▪ Amazon: Hiring 100,000 warehouse workers, shoppers and delivery drivers. No resume or past experience required. Go to amazondelivers.jobs/ for details. Amazon over the weekend also announced its hourly workers at U.S. warehouses will receive double pay after 40 hours for overtime, up from the 1.5-times rate, in a period from March 15 through May 9.
▪ Walmart: Hiring 150,000, with more than 2,100 associates to be hired in Washington state to work in stores, clubs, distribution centers and fulfillment centers. Go to careers.walmart.com/.
▪ Instacart: Hiring 300,000 nationwide. Go to shoppers.instacart.com/?.
▪ Shipt: The competing delivery service to Instacart is hiring thousands. Go to www.shipt.com/be-a-shopper/.
▪ Dollar Tree: Hiring 25,000 full- and part-time workers for its stores and distribution centers. Go to www.dollartree.com/careers.
▪ CVS: Hring 50,000 nationwide. Go to jobs.cvshealth.com/?.
▪ 7-Eleven: Hiring as many as 20,000. Go to careers.7-eleven.com/careers/home.
▪ Domino’s and Pizza Hut: Both hiring for various positions. Go to jobs.dominos.com or jobs.pizzahut.com/.
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 1:32 PM.
