Consumption

Bare Necessities and Bare Shelves

Consumer demand rose alongside the stress of keeping industry alive. “Panic buyers”  hoarded toilet paper, disinfectants, masks, gloves, and food. Non-essential items needed for new hobbies such, as home renovation, art, and baking supplies, flew off shelves. These kinds of demands made delivery companies  unexpectedly essential.

Panic buying led to shortages, so retailers limited the amount of items available for purchase.

Amazon, once a convenient online retailer, became a relied-upon source of goods. 

Corporations such as Instacart offered a safer alternative to in-person grocery shopping: online order and delivery. 

With e-commerce sales skyrocketing, Canada Post employees felt the additional stress, especially at Christmas. 

Essential Workers: Keeping us Safe and Fed

In order to keep the public fed and entertained, we needed workers to stock the shelves. Essential workers, such as cashiers, stock associates, truckers and delivery drivers, ensured a constant flow of products through both online retail and brick and mortar stores.

Most grocery store customers did not know what it was like to be working on the other side of the cash counter.

This is a picture of a meme, captioned 'Essential workers leaving for work, like...' which depicts a man staring at a woman sleeping in bed and saying "This is why I do it. She probably wont be up for a few hours."

Many essential workers felt as though they were not understood or treated well by their employers or customers.

Sobeys, a large grocery store chain, chose to consistently offer ‘hero pay’ bonuses to their workers.

The Alberta government was accused of leaving extra pay for essential workers unspent.

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