Retailers Work To Meet Demand Of Shoppers During Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

Many grocery stores around the metro are hiring additional employee's trying to keep up with the demand of shoppers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 

"While we are rushing, working as hard as we can to both keep our stores clean and keep them in stock, occasionally we're running out of items," said Marc Jones, with Homeland Stores.

With the first news of COVID-19, many decided to stock up on supplies, leaving shelves empty in many grocery stores. To keep enough supplies for everyone many of these stores announced they're hiring more staff as soon as possible.

"We can use all the help we can get and we've in fact actually made it easier for our store managers to fill positions so we're hiring on the spot as quickly as people can fill out an application," said Jones.

They're not only doing this to stack the shelves each day, but also to give employment to those who may have recently been let go due to many businesses shutting down. Homeland, Crest, and Buy For Less are some of those stores who are deciding to go out and hire more people.

"Making sure people don't go homeless, making sure people don't lose too much," said Jones. "It's helpful and it's very helpful to the community."

To keep their supply line moving at a steady pace, Associated Wholesale Grocers, a company which provides stock to stores in the area decided to hire additional workers as well to get more supplies in stores.

Stores are also stepping up cleaning efforts to counter the traffic coming in and out.

At the end of every day, we're going around the store and cleaning it and we're scheduling people to come in before we even open those first areas to do an extra deep clean.

The store also supplies sanitizing wipes at every entrance so people can wipe down their cart.