Tensions have been high throughout grocery stores during the coronavirus pandemic with customers becoming upset about the lack of items available, and it has taken a toll on grocery store workers throughout Marion County.
“I’ve seen people’s attitudes completely change,” Pic-N-Sav cashier Sherron Bailey said. “Over a loaf of bread, I’ve been cussed out and had bread thrown at me. They’re telling me they need that for their grandmother, and I understand. But we have limits for everyone to be able to have bread and milk and toilet paper.”
Dollar General Lead Key Holder and Cashier Rachel Baker said the best way to describe what it has been like at the U.S. 98 location on the east side of Columbia is "chaotic."
“We’ve had a lot of really rude people when we say we don’t have any hand sanitizer or Lysol or bleach,” she said. “Pretty much everyone who has come into Dollar General lately has been panic buying.”
While there has been a lot of negativity, Baker said there have been a few customers who have taken the time to offer their appreciation for the work employees have put in.
Ramey’s Store Manager David Broome said its business has basically doubled since the pandemic began and that the most trying thing for him has been the frustration of not being able to keep products available for customers.
“Everybody is out of toilet paper, and everybody is out of this and that,” he said. “We like to provide a service and give people one place to shop, but that’s the main thing that’s been wrong. We just can’t get the product for the people.”
Dollar General has been so busy that it’s been taking them four to five days to stock the shelves after a truck comes in because they can’t leave the registers when it usually can be done in just one day, according to Baker.
Although other locations have had some run-ins with unhappy customers, Broome said the Columbia store has been the company’s best store when it comes to complaints.
“There’s always one or two that’s not going to do right, but 99.99% of the people have done what they’ve been asked to do and had a good attitude about it,” he said. “The community has really worked together.”
Following Gov. Tate Reeves’ shelter-in-place order April 2, Bailey said April 3 was absolutely horrible with people swarming the store to raid the shelves, panic buying everything they can get their hands on.
Bailey said the reason stores are placing limits on items like bread, eggs and cleaning supplies is because there is a shortage among the distributors, causing stores to be unable to order more than they usually would to keep up with the high demand. Pic-N-Sav hasn’t been able to keep either Germ-X or Lysol on the shelves to the point where employees don’t even have hand sanitizer for themselves.
“We’re working really hard, and it’s been really stressful. I don’t want to be a Grinch and take stuff away from people,” she said. “As of (Tuesday), we don’t have limits on the bread and milk anymore. We still have it on toilet paper.”
Both Bailey and Baker joked about customers’ obsession with stocking up on toilet paper, with Baker saying there was a lady who came in Wednesday and purchased eight large packs.
Bailey said what she wants people to understand is the grocery stores aren’t going to close; they’re going to stay open, and there isn’t a need to go crazy. However, Pic-N-Sav will actually be closed on Easter for the first time in the 17 years Bailey has worked there.
People have also complained about the prices of milk and meat going up at every store, but Bailey said people need to realize it’s not stores raising the cost out of greed. The increases are a byproduct of one of the main rules of thumb of capitalism: supply and demand.
Another thing Bailey has noticed is people ignoring safety guidelines and shopping with their entire family in tow. She said she can understand a single mother having to bring her children into the store with nobody capable of babysitting, but she encourages people to shop alone if they can.
Bailey also wants to remind customers to be courteous and realize they are doing everything they can to help shoppers and many of them are working overtime because several employees have had to quarantine.
“All it takes is a ‘thank you’ when you come to the register. Not just to me, but the other cashiers and the stock hands, just say ‘thank you.’ We have put ourselves out there, and we don’t have the protection gear,” she said.
