Behind the Scenes of Grocery Shopping During COVID-19

Julie Trautner, Student Writer

As a result of the spread of Coronavirus, many grocery stores have experienced increased rates of shoppers. Randall Stover, night supervisor at Landis Supermarket in Perkasie, has been tackling the extra responsibilities that have come with the additional shoppers recently.

Increased shopping means more and more products getting off of the shelves at any grocery store. Due to this, a lot of the behind the scenes work at Landis Supermarket has changed. Stover says, “Ordering has become difficult because our main supplier has put a cap on the number of pieces we are allowed to order because they are so behind at their warehouse.” Many grocery stores are out of disinfectants and hand sanitizers and his store has focused more on getting food. “We have really had to just focus on food, because a lot of the disinfecting products and paper products won’t come in if we order them because the warehouse doesn’t have them,” says Stover.

With the increased shipments coming in of food, Stover’s normal responsibilities have changed bringing about a new schedule for him. Traditionally grocery stores usually stock at night, but with the spread of COVID-19 Stover says Landis Supermarket has been focusing most of their attention at night on, “night cleaning and disinfecting.” This means Stover’s traditional responsibilities of managing restocking have been pushed to the morning and day- time.

Landis Supermarket is taking extra precautions to keep their shoppers safe. Stover says that Landis has, “extra help daily to just clean and sanitize around the store.” Stover says that they are cleaning, “anything that people are touching.” Stover also says that they are putting limits on, “paper, meats, water and certain cleaning products.” He says they are doing this, “to make sure everyone can get what they need.”

Stover’s fiancée, Taylor Trautner, has been out of work due to Coronavirus so, Stover is picking up as many hours as he can. With the change of schedule Stover says, “I’ve been having trouble getting good sleep.” Because of all of this, it is hard for Stover to get to spend any time with his fiancé. Everyone working in grocery stores is putting in so much work, so next time you go to a grocery store be sure to say thank you!