Item
Essential People Project: Scott Rogers
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Essential People Project: Scott Rogers
Description (Dublin Core)
As part of Everyday Boston's Essential People project, Jamarri Young interviews Scott Rogers. Scott is a grocery worker, and he describes what it's like to stock the shelves during a pandemic, including the early days of panic buying, his appreciation for his coworkers, and how he misses interacting with his customers
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
04/12/2020
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
The Essential People Project
Partner (Dublin Core)
Everyday Boston
Type (Dublin Core)
Interview
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Food & Drink
English
Business & Industry
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Everyday Boston
Essential People Project
supermarket
groceries
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
07/21/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
03/01/2021
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Jamarri Young
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Scott Rogers
Format (Dublin Core)
Video
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
5 minutes 13 seconds
Bit Rate/Frequency (Omeka Classic)
48kbps
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
Jamarri Young 00:03
Alright, Scott, how are you?
Scott Rogers 00:05
I'm good, man. Good.
Jamarri Young 00:06
How's life going? You know, it's pretty rough time right now for everybody.
Scott Rogers 00:10
For me, it's just a lot of anxiety. I've always been kind of just a very easy going person. However, this is just kind of hiked up everything a bit, I guess.
Jamarri Young 00:20
Yeah, I try to stay inside as much as I can. But you know, things have to be done. So it's hard.
Scott Rogers 00:26
For me. It's the complete opposite. I work at a supermarket so I have to go out. And it's been, it's kind of nerve wracking, but at the same time, I'm doing my job and I'm doing it as well as I can. Trying to keep the shelves full and everything keep the stock full. So that's what I'm doing, you know, I'm just working, I'm going out there.
Jamarri Young 00:51
How would you describe the vibe of your workplace now compared to what it was before the virus?
Scott Rogers 00:58
It's crazy. It's something like I've never seen, I've never seen people shop the way that they're shopping. They're shopping, like, for two weeks worth, you know, because they know they're going to be inside. We're dealing with, with delivery issues, we're dealing with we order stuff that's coming in. But let me tell you, some of my employees and some of the people that I work with, they've just been, they've stepped it up. They really have.
Jamarri Young 01:28
For you, how has the shoppers reacted to certain things or certain situations?
Scott Rogers 01:33
I've been in the business of supermarket business, stocking groceries, for over 25 years. So, I've seen a lot of crazy things. And, and this is starting to get better. I feel like it's getting better. In the very beginning, I have to admit it was tough, it was really hard for customers to come in and to not have products available, or everyone's trying to wait in line and everyone's trying to get that last dozen of eggs. People are kind of upset. And I think, I think nervous that they don't know what the future holds. But now, there's people coming up to me saying, "hey, man, thanks for keeping the shelves full" and, and it's good. It's good to see that even with a six foot distance people are still able to talk to me and I have a, I have a great story about a customer who came in really early. And I could tell he wasn't, I didn't recognize him at all. I didn't know him. And he comes by me and and I saw him and he turns around he goes, hi, how are you? And I'm like, hey how you doin'? And he's like, you know, I don't get out much. But it was great that we could have a conversation and that's, that's part of my, my interaction with the customers is really what I'm kind of missing.
Jamarri Young 03:02
Positivity. That's what we need. Because in a time like this, like even though there's a lot like the world sucks right now, but we all need to come together and be positive about certain things.
Scott Rogers 03:14
I absolutely agree. It's hard to be positive when the price of eggs goes up. It just jumped up big time, because that, because of the farmers. Everyone's having problems, getting the products to the customer, you know, and so you're going to see things that are - the price of butter, price of milk, price of commodities are going to go up.
Jamarri Young 03:39
You deserve a lot of credit. Anybody that works in essential part of an occupation that has to work in a rough time like this really does deserve credit and gratitude.
Scott Rogers 03:50
You know, I never thought that I would be an essential worker. You know, here I am just, just I'm just a simple guy trying to make a living stocking the shelves. I never realized that I'd be an essential worker, but absolutely, providing food for people so that they can stay away. You know, I definitely want to, you know, I would love to have everything available so they can say, All right, I'll see you in two weeks now and stay safe. Yeah, that's my goal.
Jamarri Young 04:20
Now, I also want to thank you, like people you work with, company. Like in a time like this where a lot of people are being laid off or can't work anymore, we still have people like you that can provide the things we need, and thank you for that.
Scott Rogers 04:35
Yeah, you're welcome, man. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And when customers come and people come and thank me, it really is, it helps motivate me to do my job and helps me to wake up in the morning and, and, you know, disinfect my door, disinfect my car, and drive to work and put my gloves on and it's it's that extra little layer of protection and, and then I'm able to do my job.
Alright, Scott, how are you?
Scott Rogers 00:05
I'm good, man. Good.
Jamarri Young 00:06
How's life going? You know, it's pretty rough time right now for everybody.
Scott Rogers 00:10
For me, it's just a lot of anxiety. I've always been kind of just a very easy going person. However, this is just kind of hiked up everything a bit, I guess.
Jamarri Young 00:20
Yeah, I try to stay inside as much as I can. But you know, things have to be done. So it's hard.
Scott Rogers 00:26
For me. It's the complete opposite. I work at a supermarket so I have to go out. And it's been, it's kind of nerve wracking, but at the same time, I'm doing my job and I'm doing it as well as I can. Trying to keep the shelves full and everything keep the stock full. So that's what I'm doing, you know, I'm just working, I'm going out there.
Jamarri Young 00:51
How would you describe the vibe of your workplace now compared to what it was before the virus?
Scott Rogers 00:58
It's crazy. It's something like I've never seen, I've never seen people shop the way that they're shopping. They're shopping, like, for two weeks worth, you know, because they know they're going to be inside. We're dealing with, with delivery issues, we're dealing with we order stuff that's coming in. But let me tell you, some of my employees and some of the people that I work with, they've just been, they've stepped it up. They really have.
Jamarri Young 01:28
For you, how has the shoppers reacted to certain things or certain situations?
Scott Rogers 01:33
I've been in the business of supermarket business, stocking groceries, for over 25 years. So, I've seen a lot of crazy things. And, and this is starting to get better. I feel like it's getting better. In the very beginning, I have to admit it was tough, it was really hard for customers to come in and to not have products available, or everyone's trying to wait in line and everyone's trying to get that last dozen of eggs. People are kind of upset. And I think, I think nervous that they don't know what the future holds. But now, there's people coming up to me saying, "hey, man, thanks for keeping the shelves full" and, and it's good. It's good to see that even with a six foot distance people are still able to talk to me and I have a, I have a great story about a customer who came in really early. And I could tell he wasn't, I didn't recognize him at all. I didn't know him. And he comes by me and and I saw him and he turns around he goes, hi, how are you? And I'm like, hey how you doin'? And he's like, you know, I don't get out much. But it was great that we could have a conversation and that's, that's part of my, my interaction with the customers is really what I'm kind of missing.
Jamarri Young 03:02
Positivity. That's what we need. Because in a time like this, like even though there's a lot like the world sucks right now, but we all need to come together and be positive about certain things.
Scott Rogers 03:14
I absolutely agree. It's hard to be positive when the price of eggs goes up. It just jumped up big time, because that, because of the farmers. Everyone's having problems, getting the products to the customer, you know, and so you're going to see things that are - the price of butter, price of milk, price of commodities are going to go up.
Jamarri Young 03:39
You deserve a lot of credit. Anybody that works in essential part of an occupation that has to work in a rough time like this really does deserve credit and gratitude.
Scott Rogers 03:50
You know, I never thought that I would be an essential worker. You know, here I am just, just I'm just a simple guy trying to make a living stocking the shelves. I never realized that I'd be an essential worker, but absolutely, providing food for people so that they can stay away. You know, I definitely want to, you know, I would love to have everything available so they can say, All right, I'll see you in two weeks now and stay safe. Yeah, that's my goal.
Jamarri Young 04:20
Now, I also want to thank you, like people you work with, company. Like in a time like this where a lot of people are being laid off or can't work anymore, we still have people like you that can provide the things we need, and thank you for that.
Scott Rogers 04:35
Yeah, you're welcome, man. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And when customers come and people come and thank me, it really is, it helps motivate me to do my job and helps me to wake up in the morning and, and, you know, disinfect my door, disinfect my car, and drive to work and put my gloves on and it's it's that extra little layer of protection and, and then I'm able to do my job.
Local URL (Omeka Classic)
This item was submitted on July 21, 2020 by Sebastien Hardinger using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.