I work at a local grocery store, Ingles on Third  Street in Gaffney, SC. The grocery stores have taken many precautions to keep not just the employees safe, but the customers, too.

The store where I work has started putting plastic at every register to prevent face to face contact. They also have us clean our stations whenever we get a chance. Some cashiers are now being used just to clean the store. There is also someone who stands at the grocery carts and they clean them as the customers come in. Cashiers have to go wash our hands every twenty minutes, as well as before our shift even starts, and also use hand sanitizer after every customer.

At the end of the night if you are the closing cashier, you have to clean all of the registers, the door handles; everything at the front you could imagine somebody could touch, you have to clean.

Anytime a cashier has no customers and your register is clean, we have to start cleaning some other things, just to insure the safety of others. If someone lets you know that they have been sick previously, we must wipe down everything and make sure to wash our hands, even if it hasn’t been twenty minutes. We are allowed to wear gloves and masks if we choose, and have been given the option to wear jeans whenever we may choose for the month of April.

Ingles has also started hiring many new people in all areas! We have so many new cashiers, and stockers. During this time, so many people are coming through our lines and it has been so busy. Everyone is stocking up on canned foods and toiletries. You hardly ever see someone just come into the store for just two to three things anymore, it is always a whole lot more. I love my job and my co-workers and I would not want to be going through this time without them.