Store workers are tasked with enforcing coronavirus edicts
NEW YORK — Sandy Jensen’s customer service job at a Sam’s Club in Fullerton, California, normally involves checking members’ ID cards at the door and answering questions. But the coronavirus has turned her into a kind of a store sheriff.
Now she must confront shoppers who aren’t wearing masks, enforce social distancing measures like one-way aisles and limit the number of people allowed inside. The efforts sometimes provoke testy customers.
“They are behaving worse now,” Jensen said. “Everybody is on edge. I have hostile members in my face.”
Her frustration is shared by store workers across the country, who are suddenly being asked to enforce the rules that govern shopping during the pandemic, a tension- filled role for which most of them have received little or no training. The burden is sure to become greater as more businesses in nearly a dozen states start to reopen.
Even if a security guard is posted at the store, employees complain they are often left to stand up to defiant shoppers.
“I think that people are pushing back because their freedoms are being controlled,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents 1.3 million members, including grocery workers. “Members don’t feel comfortable trying to corral the customer. Management will take the customer side.”
Store tensions recently resulted in violence in at least two states. A Michigan security officer was fatally shot last week after telling a customer to wear a mask at a Family Dollar store. Two McDonald’s employees in Oklahoma City were shot Wednesday by a customer who was angry that the restaurant’s dining area was closed, police said.
Masks are required in some states and communities. Some major retailers including Costco Wholesale Club have made masks mandatory regardless of government policies. But even at stores that post signs about mask recommendations, workers often have to approach unmasked visitors.
Jeff Reid, who works at the meat counter at a Giant store in Silver Spring, Maryland, which mandates masks, said the greeter at his store is the one confronting shoppers, not the security guard posted outside.
”If it’s against the law without your mask, why are you having cashiers and teenagers trying to enforce this when this is the law?” asked Reid.
Jason Brewer, a spokesman at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said it’s not a retail employee’s role to enforce a local law or an executive order on face coverings or any other protocol. He said law enforcement should get involved and that shoppers can do their part.
”Consumers need to keep this top of mind,” Brewer said.
Some workers can be a problem as well.
Scott Nash, CEO of MOM’s Organic Market, which operates 19 stores in the mid-Atlantic region, said he’s had to deal with some workers feeling overly empowered and hostile toward customers. He tells workers to “use their common sense.”
“Don’t be too lax and don’t be controlling or publicly shaming,” Nash said.