Phillip Riggins, the produce manager of the Stop-N-Shop in Leland, comes to work everyday and does his job, just as usual.
He said he is not too nervous about contracting COVID-19, especially since his store has enacted a number of new safety guidelines for himself and his fellow co-workers. Riggins and his employees are washing their hands and cleaning the counters of the store constantly, he said.
Riggins does not consider himself particularly courageous, but said he knows his community needs him now more than ever.
“I know that people need to eat,” Riggins said. “I know it is very hard if you do not have enough food on the table.
“Yes, there is a risk, and I might catch it. But, it is all in the Good Lord’s hands.”
Riggins is one of many grocery store workers throughout Washington County who have seen their workloads nearly double for about two weeks now. Grocers in the area are working frantically to restock their supplies once customers quickly clean out certain shelves.
Bottled water, toilet paper and cleaning supplies are the hardest to keep in stock.
Art Rusk, the manager of the Shoppers Value on Highway 1 in Greenville, said supplies like toilet tissue and bottled water are limited because his suppliers simply do not have enough to meet the needs of the new level of demand throughout the region.
“It has been frustrating because as soon as we get a little, it is gone immediately,” Rusk said.
Rusk said his store is currently limiting customers to two loaves of bread and one case of bottled water. As for cleaning supplies, like Lysol, there is no need to set limits because his store currently has none in stock.
“Right now, I would like our customers to only buy what they need for a given week,” Rusk said. “If they did that, it would make it a whole lot easier for our supply chain to help us to restock our shelves.”
Roy Schilling, the owner of three Stop-N-Shop stores in Leland, Hollandale and Rolling Fork, said his stores are having the same issues as Rusk. Customers there are limited to one 24-pack of bottled water and two packs of toilet tissue. His stores have also been limiting customers to just two family packs of beef at certain times “because the availability of meat is constantly changing.”
“We are turning inventory in one week that we normally turn in two weeks,” Schilling said. “It is a logistical nightmare. It is like if you are used to lifting 150 pounds, but now you are lifting 250 pounds. The warehouses and suppliers are trying to keep their inventory stocked just like us. But, when the whole supply is ramped up, the grocery stores are the first to run out.”
Local grocers are asking their customers to be patient and safe.
At Shoppers Value, Rusk wants his customers to stop bringing their entire families with them.
“When people bring their whole families, that just puts more people in the store and that puts more people at risk,” Rusk said.
At the Hollandale Shop-N-Stop, a letter from Hollandale Mayor Charlie Morrow has been posted at the store explaining to customers that there is no need to stock up on bottled water because the city’s tap water at their homes is safe to drink.
Schilling has about 25 employees working at each of his three Shop-N-Stop stores. He said he is grateful for them to keep showing up to work each day.
“They told me that, ‘If we get the virus, then we get the virus.’ But, it is important for us to come to work because the community needs the stores opened. These people I have working at our stores have really stepped up and been really unselfish.”
Employees begin coming to Rusk’s Shoppers Value at 4:30 a.m. each morning in order to help restock the store.
“I know we are doing our best to keep all of our employees safe,” he said.
