“I’ve stood with people before, where they have confronted people and people are just like, ‘F*** off’, I don’t want to do that”.
The coronavirus outbreak has highlighted how important essential supermarket workers are to households across the UK. Every day they’re putting their lives at risk to maintain some sort of normality.
Supermarket employees were showcased alongside other key workers in British Vogue last year, but many supermarket staff say they feel like they’ve become forgotten.
PLYMOUTH Stella Apsey
A supermarket worker in Plymouth, 57-year-old Stella Apsey, knew her job would be tough but a global pandemic was not what she expected when starting in 2006.
“(We’re) putting on a brave face, whilst inside we are scared”, she said
Stella has a family of four putting extra pressure on her working during the last year, she takes safety precautions but the panic of spreading covid is still there.
“Working during the pandemic has been very stressful, worrying and anxiety levels have been very high not just for myself but my colleagues too. We are all concerned we are going to catch COVID and pass it back to our families.”
Face coverings were made mandatory in shops and supermarkets in England from 24th July last year, but not all customers follow the mask policy.
“There are still people who do not wear them correctly, under their noses or chins or remove them once they are in the store and walk around with them in their hands only to replace them when they reach the checkouts to pay for their products.”
A survey conducted by YouGov of key workers reported that supermarket workers feel the least supported by the general public, with 68 percent believing that they are let down by the public; out of all the key workers, NHS workers are the most likely to feel supported.
Although supermarket workers are equally important in this pandemic, not a lot of people view them this way.
“Supermarket workers in all sectors are overlooked. Sometimes we think the public looks upon us as glorified ‘shop girls or boys’.
CHELTENHAM Eleanor Banks
A personal shopper in Cheltenham, 21-year-old Eleanor Banks works the early-morning shift. It’s sort of a luxury in disguise, working with her head-down there are no customers to jump over at 6am.
The problems seem to start when the customers come in. As Stella from Plymouth has experienced, not all customers seem to follow the mask policy and social distancing guidelines.
Eleanor has been working for online home shopping since March, she managed to get employed at Tesco’s during the height of the pandemic, at first working on the doors.
“It’s such a hard thing to try and force people to wear masks”, she said.
“I don’t really have huge confidence. I’ve stood with people before, where they have confronted people and people are just like, ‘F*** off”, I don’t want to do that’.”
Now as a home shopper, she spends her long shifts packing six bags at a time for online customers. There’s pressure to be as fast as possible. She’s often running around the store, dodging customers to meet her targets.
The first lockdown resulted in most UK supermarkets introducing an effective capacity limit and one-way-system, making Eleanor’s work more time-consuming but safer. Such rules have now disappeared with most customers forgetting social distancing and reaching and walking past her in store.
“Christmas was absolutely ridiculous. The store was packed, it was so stressful. We hold back if there’s people buying in a certain section, we can’t just barge through, we’ll wait.”
“I had my friend standing in the veg aisle. It got to the point where she had been standing there for about 5 minutes, and she just couldn’t move. It was so rammed. She couldn’t get to the place where she needed to be. Bless her, she just stood there and started to cry.”
Supermarket staff have a 20-fold higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than the general population. For Eleanor she really started to get scared when her colleagues and friends were getting the virus, she moved households away from her parents, to keep them safe.
“I’ve had people come to me, pull down their masks to ask me a question”. She laughs to herself, “I’m just like you’re completely defeating the point.”
It’s key workers like Stella and Eleanor who keep the UK in order during COVID and without them we would be truly lost.
