'Everybody Is Equal:' Grocery Store Workers Amid Coronavirus

BOLINGBROOK, IL — As the coronavirus crisis continues, there has been no shortage of coverage on the brave people working in health care — people on the front lines of combating the spread of the virus. But there are also those workers whose labor is no less essential, who allow the rest of us to maintain a semblance of societal normalcy: grocers, sanitation workers, custodians.

Patch reached out to essential workers outside the health care industry last week as part of an effort to hear more of what these essential workers have to say. We ended up speaking with two brothers — Mitchell and Daniel Riley — who both work at the Jewel-Osco in Bolingbrook. Here's what they had to say, edited for clarity and brevity.

Patch: My first question is, what do you both do at Jewel?

Mitchell: Danny is a cashier at the front end, and then I work in the produce department in the back of the store.

Patch: And how old are both of you?

Daniel: I am 22, going to be 23 on Saturday.

Mitchell: I'm 20; I turn 21 in June.

Patch: So do you feel safe at work, or has going to work become a frightening thing?

Daniel: It is safe; for me it is. I work at the front end and where I'm at we have [plastic] shields up... we're protected, and we know what to do in case of an emergency.

Mitchell: It's a little different for us because we're only able to protect ourselves with masks and gloves, and not all customers want to stay six feet away from you. If they're right next to you, you can still catch anything or you can give them everything... I have already gotten sick. I got sick March 20 and I had been quarantined for two weeks and I honestly think it was because I was working too much. My doctor told me that every guy about my age she's seen for a couple weeks had worked at a grocery store and worked in the produce department.

Patch: Really?

Mitchell: Yeah. I don't know if it's just the food we're getting in is more open to viruses... but the fact that she told me that was just surprising to me.

Patch: When you were sick, was it confirmed coronavirus or was it just a general sickness?

Mitchell: The way my doctor put it, they said — I had every [coronavirus] symptom except for shortness of breath and chest pain. So they couldn't test me because they weren't testing anybody unless they were showing every single symptom. So they basically labeled [my illness] as a "severe flu." ... I had the fever, which was 103, and I broke it within I think, like, five days.

Patch: That's got to be a scary experience, and it brings me to another question I wanted to ask. Between the both of you, do you feel most of the customers you're getting in the store respect social distancing, wearing masks and gloves, all that?

Daniel: Most of the time in the front end, people are wearing their masks and gloves, they all have wipes on them. They're wearing their masks most of the time.

Mitchell: In produce, I'd say more like 75 percent are wearing masks. Nobody really wears gloves except for the elderly ... they'll be wearing masks, gloves, if they have a sweatshirt or a coat that zips up, they're protecting themselves as much as they can. Throughout the day, you'll see people middle-aged to my age, and they're more just wearing masks. Some of them honestly don't care about the risk. ... The biggest problem with masks right now is that most people I've talked to say they feel like they look silly, and that's why they don't want to wear them. I think that's stupid, but yeah.

Patch: That 25 percent of people that aren't wearing masks, do they skew older or younger?

Mitchell: Younger, for sure.

Patch: OK. Now, you guys are union at Jewel, right? Do you feel like your union has been doing a good job in keeping you protected and keeping your hours normal?

Mitchell: I'd say definitely. Our union went as far as giving us two dollars extra pay per hour when this started. ... That means we're making $11 an hour, which is great. They extended every department's hours into unlimited overtime, so if you want to work you can work. But they're also giving you the option to stay home. They said, "if you don't want to be exposed to this, you don't have to come in." So they're actually taking care of us.

Patch: So this is a bit more of an abstract question: I'm sure you've seen a lot in the news lately that people working in grocery stores and in hospitals — folks like yourselves — are heroes. But some of the pushback on that from other labor sectors is, "we're not heroes, we're hostages." Like, "we're working because we have to because if we don't, there goes our financial security." Where do you guys stand on that debate?

Daniel: I would really lean towards, I like my job, I like helping people, and I really don't feel like I'm doing anything differently. ... I'm not being forced.

Mitchell: [Heroes] is a little uncomfortable because we're not first responders, we're not doctors, we're not nurses who are working their hardest to keep everybody else healthy. They're putting themselves on the front line. Grocery stores, yeah, you're on the front lines because you can get exposed, but it's not like we're saving anybody. We're just giving the people what they're coming in to shop for... The "heroic" thing, eh. It's uncomfortable.

Patch: Do you feel like Jewel as a company was proactive in getting you guys set up with the right protections and precautions?

Mitchell: Yeah, they were very proactive. Anytime you came in, as soon as you clocked in they asked, "do you want a mask?" They gave everybody the option, but they had plenty. Every department has gloves, every department has masks. The front end, the cashiers, I think each register had its own bottle of hand sanitizer, they gave us free water, obviously. As the outbreak continued, every night they would bring in food ... so as soon as you were able to take a break, they said, "go make sure you eat." They're definitely taking care of us.

Daniel: I have to agree with my brother on that. They did provide us with everything possible we'd need to protect us and keep us busy and going and [are] making sure we stay healthy. They do give us food mostly every day and give us free bottles of water downstairs. We're taken care of at our store.

Patch: If there was anything you would tell your customers, what would that be?

Daniel: We're all going through the same thing. It is a scary concept ... but you just got to live your life that you would normally live. It sucks that you can't go out ... but you've got to live your own life, basically.

Mitchell: That everybody is equal to yourself. At first when [people] were overstocking on toilet paper and paper towels, it was just rude, because everybody else deserves those, too. Not one person deserves more than another. It got to the point where we had to limit how much you could buy at a time. So we were limiting customers to one paper towel package and one package of toilet paper each, and customers were getting extremely upset with that. It kind of hurt the cashiers because they were just doing their jobs and customers would just stand there and yell at them like it was their fault. Don't do that. They're another human being just like yourself, they're just there to do their job and make sure you're in and out as quickly as possible.

To anybody that's stocking [up]: if we don't have it, we don't have it. We're only given a certain amount of items every day, and we put it out as soon as possible so that customers have that to buy. When it's gone, it's gone. We're sorry, but it's not our fault.

Patch: Is there anything else you wanted to add for this article about the two of you?

Mitchell: No, that's perfect.

Daniel: Thank you for your time.

Patch: Of course, thank you for yours. You both have a good day, stay safe.

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