Items

• 2020-03-20

  Life of a Retail Worker During COVID-19

  Throughout the entire pandemic, I worked in retail (specifically at the "Meijer" grocery store). As essential workers, it was frightening going to work and exposing myself to illness while many others stayed home in quarantine. I went to work and was met with frantic customers panic buying everything and anything they could find - the meat aisles were empty. The bread was gone. There wasn't a roll of toilet paper to be found. Although stock of popular items was low on a national level, we still received questions about when we would be getting more shipment in. It seemed as though people were gearing up for an apocalypse rather than a pandemic. We went around cleaning constantly, wiping and spraying down every surface we could find. Masks were mandated and giant plexi-glass shields were installed in the check-out lanes. It was incredibly difficult to work alongside others who were absolutely terrified - I was worried that I would do something wrong and set them off. Working throughout the pandemic completely wore me out and shed light on who people become when they're scared.