Community Chat

[Jordan2]

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@QueenDanceALot wrote:

I haven't seen increases in what I buy but my bill is always higher because I go to the market less often.

I have noticed gas prices going up.  It was down to like $1.39 and it's up to $1.99, with some stations over $2.00.

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@QueenDanceALot I have a small car, so a small gas tank. Since I only go out locally about twice a week, a tank of gas lasts me a long time. I haven't been able to take advantage of the lower gas prices.

[RhondaRena]

Groceries are going up and there are still food shortages. I have a friend that works for a large grocery company and she tells me to sock up because supply chains are weak. She says there is not a huge supply built up in a warehouse that pretty much what we see on the store shelves is it. There were alot of crop failures last year and she said there were already shortages before Covid. 

I recently read the Chineese are stocking up on rice and dried goods because of feared shortages coming. People do not realize how fragile our food supply really is.

[germanshepherdlove]

Stores have to if they pay their employees a hazard differential.  Many don't want to come in for fear of getting sick.  Some stores are paying an additional $2 per hour.  

[Mominohio]

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@germanshepherdlove wrote:

Stores have to if they pay their employees a hazard differential.  Many don't want to come in for fear of getting sick.  Some stores are paying an additional $2 per hour.  

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I think I heard that many of the stores that were paying the increase have now stopped doing so. I'm pretty sure most of the stores in this area have stopped. 

[RhondaRena]

My son in college works at Whole Foods. He did receive a 2.00 per hour increase. He says wearing a mask for eight hours is rather difficult. Although they gave an increase they cut employees. My other young son works Instacart. He prefers the flexibility. It seems many in their early twenties are taking on grocery store work.

[willdob3]

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@Mominohio wrote:

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@germanshepherdlove wrote:

Stores have to if they pay their employees a hazard differential.  Many don't want to come in for fear of getting sick.  Some stores are paying an additional $2 per hour.  

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I think I heard that many of the stores that were paying the increase have now stopped doing so. I'm pretty sure most of the stores in this area have stopped. 

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@Mominohio  If they have stopped what reason was given? Nothing has improved. In many places it is getting more dangerous to work at a store and be in close contact with the public. 

How can you pay someone enough to risk their life? I’m very glad there are people who work in stores at this time but I also thank God that I am not one of them.

[willdob3]

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@RhondaRena wrote:

Groceries are going up and there are still food shortages. I have a friend that works for a large grocery company and she tells me to sock up because supply chains are weak. She says there is not a huge supply built up in a warehouse that pretty much what we see on the store shelves is it. There were alot of crop failures last year and she said there were already shortages before Covid. 

I recently read the Chineese are stocking up on rice and dried goods because of feared shortages coming. People do not realize how fragile our food supply really is.

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@RhondaRena  Things are rapidly getting worse here regarding COVID-19. We may never get through the first wave. I’m purposely increasing my meat purchases because sources may disappear at any time. There is a limit on how many packages can be purchased at one time (generally 2) so I get that amount every time I place an order.

[panda1234]

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

I guess it depends on what you buy.  I have not noticed price increases... even chicken breast is still $1.99 a pound at Fred Meyer. 

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@SeaMaiden   I paid $5.99 for chicken breasts and that was the best price i found. 

[SeaMaiden]

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@panda1234 wrote:

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

I guess it depends on what you buy.  I have not noticed price increases... even chicken breast is still $1.99 a pound at Fred Meyer. 

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@SeaMaiden   I paid $5.99 for chicken breasts and that was the best price i found. 

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@panda1234   even for store brand?  

[Mominohio]

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@willdob3 wrote:

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@Mominohio wrote:

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@germanshepherdlove wrote:

Stores have to if they pay their employees a hazard differential.  Many don't want to come in for fear of getting sick.  Some stores are paying an additional $2 per hour.  

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I think I heard that many of the stores that were paying the increase have now stopped doing so. I'm pretty sure most of the stores in this area have stopped. 

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@Mominohio  If they have stopped what reason was given? Nothing has improved. In many places it is getting more dangerous to work at a store and be in close contact with the public. 

How can you pay someone enough to risk their life? I’m very glad there are people who work in stores at this time but I also thank God that I am not one of them.

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I don't know what they actually said the reasons were for dropping the pay back, but I can tell you in my area of Ohio, things have really leveled off at the grocery stores. 

They are not as busy, they are fully stocked (with the exception of disinfecting products some places). They are getting back to more regular hours. There are now PPE's and the risk is less as they have masks, gloves, plexi glass installed etc. They are not sanitizing at the level they first were. The work load in general seems to have returned more toward normal. 

And I have questioned the true risk of this virus in places like grocery stores, especially the longer this goes on. We seem to see that prisons, meat packing plants and nursing homes, where people are really packed in tight, will spread the virus like wildfire. 

But I have never seen one single report about grocery type store workers having excessive (or any) cases of this virus spreading through their ranks. It seemed at the beginning, that if any one group was going to be hit hard outside of health care workers, grocery type stores would be it. They were packed, pretty much the entire population was swamping the stores, they had no protections, they were working long hours. 

But I've heard nothing about this spreading through grocery workers in quantity like in those other mentioned groups. 

I'm guessing that maybe the risk as severe as originally thought, and the work load has leveled off, as well as sales and profits, so the stores have removed the premiums they were paying. I know that my friend who works in a call center had increased wages the first two months and they have dropped them there as well. 

I personally think some businesses, felt they had to offer the premium to keep people coming to work that might have been afraid to. Getting an extra two dollars or so an hour is huge in that wage range, and I'm sure a big part of the motivation of the companies was to simply hang on to the work force as much as it was to reward their risk/efforts.