To be honest, if I had in fact been given a choice I might have volunteered. Regardless, I still feel the sting of coercion.
I absolutely am concerned, worried, anxious, and even afraid at times. We’ve had at least one customer collapse and be carted away on a gurney - what was wrong with the lady? Who knows? We do know she was spewing bodily fluids.
I am fortunate to work at a company that has for a very long time stocked protective equipment of various sorts, including clean up kits specifically for bodily fluids - long before we had a global pandemic. They have been trying to ramp up all of this. Nonetheless, those of us with sewing skills were crafting face masks in our off hours because the company simply could not get any sort of face mask for us. They finally do have them, now. We get health screenings at the start of every shift. They are covering costs for part-timers and new hires as well as the full time folks. No employer is perfect but I do believe that my current one is doing the right thing.
Nonetheless, we are getting more and more people falling ill.
Yes. We currently only accept returns on damaged goods which we would have thrown away anyway. Yesterday an irate customer told me he would no longer shop at our store because I wouldn’t accept a return on his vegetable peeler. Somehow I suspect we will survive the loss.
Self serve lanes are harder for social distancing and for constant sanitation. I think everyone is safer using traditional lanes. And self checkout works best with only a few items, which of course is not the safest way to shop. Everyone is better off with larger orders and fewer trips.
At this point the only shopping I need to do is for perishables - fruit, vegetables, milk, bread. And only minimal amounts of that, because I stocked up on frozen stuff, too, and have flour to bake my own bread (when I have time). So my weekly shop right now might be only a few items. Like this week: I bought two loaves of bread and a honeydew melon. That’s it. If you’re shopping at that level then sure, go through the self-checkout. Bonus if, like me, you can get to work 15 minutes early and grab those items when the store is clean and traffic minimal, then toss the items in your vehicle while you work your shift.
Otherwise - yeah, big orders should go through a line with a human involved. We’ve been cracking down on the item limits at the self-checkout. This has resulted in four letter insults starting with “c” being leveled at the folks monitoring those lanes.
Limits are so much fun. Yesterday we had an issue with the two-carton limit on eggs. Why, I don’t know, I guess it was just egg day. Well, for one thing, somebody ripped down the limit sign - I suspect the person who had the eight cartons whining “but I didn’t see a sign! I didn’t see a sign! You HAVE TO sell these to me!” but I can’t prove it. Until we figured out that yes, the sign had been ripped down and got another one plastered on the egg carton case (which was ripped down again later in the morning!) we were having to skim excess cartons off all the other customers who had thought the limits had been lifted.
8 gross of eggs went back to the freezer case.
That’s just from (most) getting just 1 or 2 extra cartons of eggs. Nobody (except the one guy) was trying to walk out with piles and piles of cartons, but it shows how it only takes one or two more of an item being sold to result in a LOT more being sold overall, leading to shortages even if nobody is being a massive hoarder.
What a few people do not seem to understand is that the rules are different now. Before this there were plenty of places to go for food and businesses would do whatever they could to keep the customer happy.
Now of course we still want the customer to be happy, but the priority is to keep the food chain flowing and safe for all concerned. We have rules that are in place to keep that happening, and slacking up on those rules can put the food chain and actual lives in jeopardy. If I make an exception to the rules that seems reasonable to me, it is still wrong. The system cannot abide thousands of different managers deciding what is right in a different situations. If I come off as unreasonable to the customer, I am sorry. But if they were to come work in this climate of chaos and real fear perhaps they would understand how trivial a vegetable peeler return request actually is.
People who lick their fingers before peeling off bills to pay. We no longer take their money. Period. Massive biohazard.
“But… but… I’m sorry” - too bad, your money is no good here
“I’m sorry, it’s just a habit” - it’s habit you need to break NOW. If not yesterday. I get adult children apologizing for their elderly parents. It doesn’t matter. Now your money is no good here.
“But you have gloves!” - doesn’t matter. That currency is now a biohazard. Even if I have gloves, what about the next person in line who gets it in change? What about people who handle that money for deposit, and the bank?
“But I haven’t got any other way to pay!” - Too bad. Your money is no good here. We’ll take your cart and put it over here. You have 1 hour to find another way to get the bill paid, either by you or someone else. After that, everything goes back on the shelf for someone who won’t endanger others to buy.
NO MORE LICKING YOUR FINGERS. NO MORE BOOB-STASH MONEY. NO MORE COUGHING INTO YOUR HAND THEN USING THAT HAND TO GIVE ME YOUR MONEY.
We don’t care how you yell and curse - you can’t do that anymore. And now we’re allowed to make that stick. The virus doesn’t give a fuck that you’re “sorry” or it’s a “habit” and none of us want to get sick or even die because you, or your elderly dad, can’t understand that this shit is serious.
At the end of the day I usually find myself to tired to be angry at the customers. Our country’s leadership, instead of putting health and food supply as top priorities, is sending out mixed messages that seem to be more about worrying about their reelection than about common good. If, regardless of party, we were all being told the same thing about day-to-day safety then there would not be so much confusion. But it is no wonder so many people still do not know how to behave.
As has been oft-repeated, the virus does not care about political party. We need to listen to our experts about the safest way to ride this thing out. Then we all follow the rules together to get to the other side of this thing.
And yes, I used to work in retail, so I kinda feel ya. It’s probably not quite as bad as working in a supermarket, but is almost as bad at times, especially the holidays. Holy shit did I have headaches the night that I got home after a Black Friday.
As Randall said in Clerks: customers suck. It’s just too bad you (well, I guess me too) need them to keep our jobs.
But sweet Mary mother of Christ! Even with engineers, it’s like they finally say to themselves, “Ahhhhh, now I’m in a supermarket,” or “Ahhhh, now I’m in a retail shop. I can finally be a total fucking imbecile now.”
What actually may surprise you (and I know it has surprised me) is how many people actually do get it. Most folks are decent and have been decent. Some people are acting out of ignorance (bringing too many family members and friends to the store, not remembering to social distance, not thinking about why returns are a bad idea etc) but with gentle reminders they are understanding and often apologetic.
Grocery shopping is a habit done by most people without really thinking about it for years and years. It has been made so easy not to be aware at all about how the food or shampoo or toilet paper came to be where it is. Now just about every habit behavior, and obviously not just grocery but everywhere, has to be relearned. That’s very hard. It is understandable and forgivable that people may not grasp it the first time.
Which is of course why our leaders should be preaching safe practices with one voice.
As I mentioned in the Quarantine thread, where I live here north of Toronto every store I’ve been to I’ve seen all customers properly practicing social distancing, whether in lineups or just passing each other inside stores. I was in a different grocery store than usual today to pick up some unique items that only they had, and almost every employee was wearing a face mask. The masks were all identical so it looks like the store is making them available but not mandatory, but most employees have chosen to wear them. The policy may have spread to other stores by now as PPE becomes more widely available. Still can’t find commercial masks for myself but thank God I have hand sanitizer which is always in the car with me.
I’m a night auditor and yes, people are stupid. The Governor closed down all public pools, hot tubs and restaurants. People whine and argue and show up at the hotel’s restaurant wanting to be seated. We make it very clear any time anyone makes a reservation or checks in that the pools, hot tub, fitness center and restaurant are closed. We do room service and take out (dinner only).
This explains why people don’t follow our state mandated arrows on the floor, why some don’t wear masks (no mask no entry for many stores around here), and why there are limitations on any number of product.
I’m a 30+ year supermarket veteran who is currently witnessing all the confusion too. We finally received masks and gloves maybe two weeks ago? Many employees are still wearing their handmade fabric ones. We’re now required to wear them any time we’re on the floor. This didn’t go into effect until the paper masks became available.
We also have a state mandated “no more than 40% occupancy” in all open retail establishments. This means every supermarket, pharmacy, etc., has a line outside with an employee or security guard at the head counting who’s leaving vs who’s entering. Everyone abides by it even though you can tell by their expressions that they’re not happy about it, especially the men.
Speaking of Instacart, some of them are the nicest people in the world and you’d do backflips to help them. OTOH, if I see you XYZ times in the store on any given day STOP ASKING WHERE X IS YOU SHOULD KNOW THE LAYOUT BY NOW YOU IDIOT. Oh, and NO YOU CANNOT CUT IN THE FRONT OF THE LINE WAVING YOU BADGE AT ME. YOU SHIT LIKE THE REST OF US, WAIT YOUR FUCKING TURN TO ENTER.
(Yes, we have more Instacart shoppers in my store than actual customers in case you’re wondering. Ask any of my coworkers and they’ll corroborate all this because some Instacart shoppers are quite rude and pushy).
Nonessential departments are dead in the water right now like Prepared Foods or Bakery. Service departments like Deli and Meat have taken a nosedive, too, because they’re now limited in how they can now service a customer. There are no open service cases in any department nor any self serve. Everything is now packaged in these departments. If it can’t be packaged individually the whole item will be put out for sale, like those long ground beef tubes which are cut up for burgers. We had whole legs of lamb on sale for Easter. Ordinarily they would’ve been cut into smaller pieces but since it’s considered nonessential the whole legs were put out.
Many have chosen to take the 2 weeks off with pay. Those who have are mostly either parents of young children or they’re taking care of somebody who’s immune compromised. Our workforce isn’t terribly large to begin with so these absences are significant in that other employees must pick up the load. Some have been working 6 days a week since all this started.
Some of my coworkers are scared to the point of paranoia. They don’t want to wait on a customer in any way, shape, or form. The rest of us are taking it a day at a time. We wear our masks, our hands are chapped from the sanitizer, but we’re still there doing the best we can.
It’s official: covid-19 has reached my store. One of my coworkers is home sick with it. Miserable, but not in danger or in need of hospitalization. Fortunately, has been at home for some time, even before the official diagnosis. Even so, everyone who worked closely with that employee is now in two week quarantine. (No, we have not been told who it is or the gender of that person, although given the staffing is about 75% female odds are we’re talking about a “she”.)
Which means we are seriously, seriously short staffed now between the quarantined folks and those who have now opted for the “indefinite unpaid leave at home” option, which allows you to sit out the pandemic at home while still having a job to come back to. As well as mental health days.
So of course that’s the day Illinois (we’re 5 miles from the state line, so get a lot of Illinois customers) manages to get unemployment payments to thousands of people. Many of whom decided to come to our store and stock up on food because that’s still easier than waiting hours in line for something from a food pantry. Also, based on how many people I had to walk through their first time using EBT yesterday, a lot of folks got their shiny new food stamps card (from Illinois, that’s a Link card. Indiana is a Hoosier Works, Michigan has the Bridge card, Wisconsin has Quest, and I forget the names of the others I’ve seen).
Can you say “perfect storm”?
We were seriously short both in official cashiers and backups, while getting slammed by an unexpected glut of customers even with entry control of the store.
About halfway through the day I was having to suppress the urge to punch the next person who would screech “WHY DON’T YOU HAVE MORE REGISTERS OPEN?!?” Because we’re no more immune to sickness than you are, dumbshits.
I actually didn’t have any alcohol after I got home last night, I opted for a hot, soaking bath instead, but while this job doesn’t require you to drink heavily it can certainly give you an incentive.