Item
Reflections of a Grocery Worker
Title (Dublin Core)
Reflections of a Grocery Worker
Description (Dublin Core)
This photograph is a selfie photo from my time working at my local grocery store in Wakefield, Rhode Island, USA. I don't have many photos from this period that reflect the pandemic and my memories of it, but this photo represents the early days as the USA first began to adopt masking after the CDC realized that non-symptomatic spread was happening. Experiencing the pandemic through the lens of a grocery store was very interesting. It was a unique perspective for understanding different people's anxieties and doubts around the pandemic. It was also a strenuous place to be during the pandemic, having to constantly adapt to supply chain issues, worker shortages, and the mental strain of working in a likely unsafe environment.
About a month into the pandemic I was asked to move from my home department of prepared foods, and help the grocery-stocking staff catch up with the unpredictable shipments coming in. Shortly after that, I was moved over to the front of the store to help keep count of the people in the store and encourage customers to use masks/hand sanitizer. I remember being met with a wide variety of gratitude, skepticism, resistance, and more--even including a lecture on covid as a conspiracy! At times, this role brought me anxiety as I saw news stories of door-people and security guards being killed or harmed for asking visiting customers to wear a mask.
In a weird way, when I left my job to attend grad school at UMass Boston, I felt a bit of suvivor's guilt. Whenever I come home to Rhode Island, I hear that the folks at my old store continue to struggle even over a year deeper into the pandemic.
About a month into the pandemic I was asked to move from my home department of prepared foods, and help the grocery-stocking staff catch up with the unpredictable shipments coming in. Shortly after that, I was moved over to the front of the store to help keep count of the people in the store and encourage customers to use masks/hand sanitizer. I remember being met with a wide variety of gratitude, skepticism, resistance, and more--even including a lecture on covid as a conspiracy! At times, this role brought me anxiety as I saw news stories of door-people and security guards being killed or harmed for asking visiting customers to wear a mask.
In a weird way, when I left my job to attend grad school at UMass Boston, I felt a bit of suvivor's guilt. Whenever I come home to Rhode Island, I hear that the folks at my old store continue to struggle even over a year deeper into the pandemic.
This is a photograph.
Date (Dublin Core)
April 14, 2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
self
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Asa Peters
Type (Dublin Core)
photograph
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Clothing & Accessories
English
Business & Industry
English
Food & Drink
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Rhode Island
Wakefield
grocery store
supply chain
shortage
worker shortage
hand sanitizer
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
retail
essential
worker
grocery
mask
mandate
conspiracy
skepticism
Collection (Dublin Core)
Service Industry
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
02/23/2022
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
03/18/2022
Item sets
This item was submitted on February 23, 2022 by Asa Peters 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.