Life on the frontline
SUPERMARKET STAFF HELP KEEP THE NATION FED DURING ‘SURREAL’ TIME
THEY are on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic – risking their health to make sure the nation is fed during lockdown.
Supermarket workers, along with NHS staff, have become the heroes we rely on every day to get us through these troubling times.
For checkout manager Jenni Kwiatkowski, from Tameside, it’s a ‘surreal’ position to be in. It’s not a situation she would have ever predicted when she signed up to work at Morrisons in Dukinfield five years ago.
But it’s a responsibility she is taking seriously – and she wants customers to know staff are there for them.
For every rare incident in which shoppers have become rude or abusive, she says there are countless others in which people have shown genuine compassion.
A group of nurses came in on Wednesday, she said, to give the staff a huge box of chocolates. Jenni, a mumof-five, found the situation ‘mindblowing’ as the staff didn’t see their role as especially important.
“I said ‘we are just in the supermarket.’ (The nurses) said ‘we wouldn’t do what we are doing if you weren’t here feeding us.’
“Shoppers will come in and give us a chocolate bar, to thank us for everything we do. We have been here for 33 years. Lots of people have been shopping here since the beginning, they are quite protective over us. It’s humbling as a retail worker.”
As measures to combat the spread of coronavirus have evolved, employees at the supermarkets have adapted to a new way of working.
With the days of bulk panic buying over, stickers have been put on the floor in the Dukinfield store so customers know where to stand to keep their distance from others.
Perspex screens have been introduced at check-outs to protect staff.
If the store gets too busy, then they limit the amount of people allowed in.
Staff can leave the tills whenever they need to wash their hands.
The situation is now a lot calmer thanks to the strict rules – and most shoppers are obliging.
Jenni, 39, said: “Now panic-buying is not an option (due to the restrictions brought in). Most people are saying that (the new measures) make them feel safer.”
Jenni, along with many other supermarket staff, has gone the extra mile for customers. One example is particularly touching.
She said: “I found an 84-year-old man in floods of tears in the produce aisle, he just wanted enough to be able to stay in (and self-isolate).
“He couldn’t – there wasn’t the stock. We got him what he needed. I gave him my mobile phone number.
“He rings me up and I get what he needs. I took his shopping round to his house and my seven-year-old drew him a picture of a bird because the man’s wife was worried about getting bird seeds. I know she’s very vulnerable.”
Jenni said the staff at the store look out for one another and her boss is very supportive.
She said: “We have got ourselves through this as a team, by trying to help where we can. People in the store are compassionate – we have cried together. We have always been a good team but it has brought us closer together.”
She said staff have the same ‘worries as everyone else’ about the spread of coronavirus. Jenni added: “I know the company are doing what they can do to protect us. I’m still going to work – I’m lucky. I’m aware that some people aren’t going anywhere for a long time.” Morrisons has introduced £35 food boxes for shoppers who are struggling to get what they need.
Find out more at https://www.morrisons.com/food-boxes/boxes
Shoppers will come in and give us a chocolate bar, to thank us for everything we do Jenni Kwiatkowski