SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM ❚ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2020 ❚ 3A
Grocers
Continued from Page 1A
‘Unprecedented’ demand
At a time when other sectors of the
economy have stalled due to the spread
of coronavirus, grocery stores are seeing
big business as people stock up.
Michael Roth, owner of Roth's Fresh
Markets, said since March 12, when Ore-
gon closed schools, company sales
jumped to three times their normal rate.
"The last few days we have still been
very busy at twice normal sales."
Roths2GO, the grocer's online order-
ing and curbside pick-up platform, is at
a 700% increase in usage from this time
last year.
LifeSource Natural Foods marketing
manager Felipe Gonzalez said the store
had a total of 30 online and phone or-
ders in the entire month of February.
Now, "It's up to 100 or more a day."
"The good news," he said, "is that we
were already pointing ourselves in that
direction, but it's been sped up."
Safeway, part of the Albertsons
chain, is currently hiring delivery driv-
ers for all stores in Oregon. Salem-area
WinCo stores are hiring temporary gro-
cery clerks, and Fred Meyer has 200+
Oregon jobs posted, including those for
e-commerce clerks and parcel clerks,
aka curbside pick-up attendants.
Fred Meyer spokesperson Jeffery
Temple said, "Even before the state of
emergency pick-up service was on a
strong incline."
Now, with demand at "unprecedent-
ed levels," he said, "we absolutely need
more people to help get those orders ful-
filled."
Grocery shopping online
LifeSource has converted its cafe into
a staging area for curbside pick-ups.
Chandra Timm, a newly hired "harves-
ter," spends her shifts shopping.
Working from a clipboard, she se-
lects items for two or three orders simul-
taneously. Still in her first week on the
job, Timm knows where the commonly
ordered items are, but every so often has
to ask a more seasoned coworker where
to find something.
An order calls for aloe vera, but the
store is sold out. Since the customer
stipulated they could make a substitute,
Timm selects vegetable glycerin in-
stead.
South Salem resident Alex Benenson
and his partner, in their late 50s and
60s, respectively, had never tried online
grocery shopping before the CDC began
recommending people practice social
distancing.
Because they fall in an at-risk cate-
gory, Benenson said, "We're trying not
to go out too much." The couple has now
tried online ordering with either curb-
side pick-up or delivery from Fred Mey-
er, LifeSource, and Roth's. So far, he
said, the experience has been a little un-
even, but not bad.
Shopping for groceries online, "for
somebody like me who uses Amazon, it
wasn't a foreign experience." The big-
gest difference, he said: "The way their
websites are set up, you can't just say, 'I
want a dozen eggs.' You have to pick
specific eggs."
If the store doesn't have a dozen of
the eggs you ordered, the grocery picker
has to make a call: the same product but
a different quantity? Or the same quan-
tity but a different product? Plus, with
varying supply levels, your order may or
may not be entirely complete.
He's also found the selection online
to not be as expansive as in stores.
Shopping at Roth's, he can find "several
brands of coffee from local places, but
online there might be slightly less
choice."
The online wait
Regardless of which option shoppers
An employee bags groceries at LifeSource Natural Foods. MADELEINE COOK / STATESMAN JOURNAL
choose, they're likely to encounter a
longer wait than typical.
LifeSource has a fixed number of or-
ders they can fulfill every day, and re-
cently the wait time has been pushing
their self-imposed maximum of 48
hours. The Albertsons website warns of
"fulfillment delays" for online orders.
Fred Meyer's says, "Due to increased de-
mand, you may experience longer wait
times, delayed deliveries or limited in-
ventory."
The first time he ordered from Fred
Meyer, Benenson said, it was meant to
be ready on Friday evening.
"I just kept getting these texts to say
oh your order's going to be a little bit lat-
er." The last text came in at 10 or 11 p.m.,
though he did receive his order the fol-
lowing day.
At Roth's in McMinnville, as of Mon-
day, March, 23, orders were booked sol-
id through Sunday for deliveries.
"I would love to double the amount of
orders we're fulfilling each day," McKin-
ney said, "that's my whole goal." To sup-
port that, he plans to hire 10 people.
Considering the demand on these
systems, said Benenson,"overall I think
they're doing a really good job and
they're obviously slammed right now."
shop, avoiding the general public.
Still, grocery aisles are only so wide,
and frequent need for employees to
stock shelves makes it difficult for em-
ployees and shoppers to adhere to the
recommended 6 feet of social distanc-
ing.
Despite widespread sanitizing proto-
cols, grocery stores can't be completely
risk-free for either shoppers or employ-
ees. Willamette Week reported a Fred
Meyer employee in Portland tested pos-
itive for COVID-19 this week, and ser-
vice workers in any store bear some de-
gree of risk.
In some states, grocery workers have
been designated "emergency person-
nel," a distinction that entitles them to
free or reimbursed child care. While
Oregon has not taken such a step, Ore-
gon's United Food & Commercial Work-
ers Local 555 is advocating hazard pay
and physical protections for grocery
workers.
"The grocery line is the front line,"
said union spokesperson Miles Eshaia.
"Food is one of those things that keeps
us from falling into the abyss."
The union, which represents workers
at area locations of Safeway, Albert-
sons, Fred Meyer and Roth's, is also
working to secure First Responder pro-
tections for grocery workers, a status
that would prioritize their access to CO-
VID-19 testing, financial assistance ac-
cess to protective masks and gloves.
"Our team members are the best!
They are dedicated to our customers
and gladly worked tirelessly for long
hours," said Roth, "I am humbled and
forever grateful by their dedication dur-
ing this crisis."
Madeline Cook of the Statesman
Journal contributed reporting for this
article.
Emily Teel is the Food & Drink Editor
at the Statesman Journal. Contact her
at eteel@statesmanjournal.com, Face-
book, or Twitter. See what she's cooking
and where she's eating this week on In-
stagram: @emily_teel
Increasing in-store safety
measures
Shoppers may be switching to online
and pick-up orders to follow social dis-
tance guidelines, but stores are dealing
with methods to keep shoppers and
workers safe.
In "wide-open grocery stores," said
Roth, "people can be pretty good at so-
cial distancing, except at check out
where you have to be close enough to
hand a cashier your money."
Inspired by Texas-based H-E-B Gro-
cery, Roth's has installed Plexiglas barri-
ers in front of all cashier check-out lanes
at all stores. Fred Meyer is in the process
of adding similar barriers throughout
stores in the region.
Stores are also adding in-store signs
and floor markers to remind shoppers to
maintain recommended social dis-
tance.
Stores are supplying hand sanitizer
and cart wipes at entrances, and using
them liberally on credit card readers and
check-out counters.
Salem's Trader Joe's store has turned
off automatic doors and is allowing only
20 shoppers into the store at a time.
Several grocers are setting aside spe-
cific hours for those at higher risk to
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