‘How much damage could I do?’ Retail workers worry about coronavirus safety

A Lowe’s employee was standing at his service desk one recent day when a man approached him carrying several gallons of paint.

The man had brought them in from home. He wanted to have them shaken.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the employee said he thought at the time. With the coronavirus spreading across North Carolina, he still had people bringing in items from home. And he still had to shake the paint cans, while wearing thick work gloves.

The News & Observer has received a stream of emails from retail employees and customers across the Triangle concerned about large crowds, coughing customers and people not respecting distancing guidelines at stores.

Several employees from Lowe’s and Orange County ABC stores emailed The N&O to talk about their worries and have requested to remain anonymous, for fear of losing their jobs.

On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper ordered all retail stores still open to limit the number of shoppers inside at a time to no more than 20% of the store’s fire capacity. While he said some places are already doing this, Cooper mandated the measure for all essential stores.

The order also instructs stores and to regularly clean and disinfect, make aisles like one-way streets and mark six feet of distance in checkout lines and outside stores. It goes into effect Monday, April 13.

‘They’re part of the problem’

With many folks are stuck at home and a recent ”Spring Black Friday” sale at the store offering items like mulch, garden soil and flowers at reduced prices, Lowe’s locations in the Triangle have seen large crowds that have made many people nervous.

One Lowe’s employee told The N&O he sees hundreds of people a day and worries about how fast he could spread the virus if he were to contract it and be asymptomatic for days.

“How much damage could I do?” he said on a phone call.

His job necessitates close contact with customers. One recent day, he said, he had to guide a person around the store to pick out blinds. They were wearing a mask and gloves and he couldn’t help but think about how odd the situation was.

Sarah Lively, a Lowe’s rep, wrote in an email that all Lowe’s stores now have signage and floor markers encouraging social distancing and in-store announcements remind customers of it every 15 minutes. She said customers have the option to check out via mobile device in store or to purchase products online.

Lively also said because store sizes and layouts vary, there is no blanket customer capacity guideline, but managers are able to limit the number of people in their store.

The company has announced a temporary $2 an hour wage increase as well.

But despite the distancing measures the company has taken, the Lowe’s employee who spoke with the N&O said customers aren’t paying attention to them. “I don’t think they comprehend they’re part of the problem,” he said.

He said he and fellow employees can’t talk about their worries throughout the day and constantly remind each other to wash their hands.

He said potential customers should only come to the store if they need a product that’s essential, “not because you’re bored.”

The N&O emailed Lowe’s representatives on Wednesday and Friday with further questions and have not received a response.

Possibly contaminated money, coughing customers

Each day as soon as he gets home from work, one employee at an Orange County ABC store said he takes his work clothes off and puts them in the washing machine. Then he takes a shower.

And only after that does he get near his family.

He worries about the large number of people he sees during his shifts and if they could have spread the virus to him.

He’s had an older woman cough on him absentmindedly and one man who licked his fingers to separate cash at checkout. When he asked the man not do that, he jokingly did it again.

For the eight Orange County ABC retail stores, new safety measures were put in place over the past month. These include signs encouraging the use of debit or credit cards and signs that bar groups of more than two from entering the store. Tape has been put on the floor to guide physical distancing in checkout lines.

Employees have been given gloves, but no masks, and shields were recently installed to separate them from customers during checkout. In addition, the stores are now being cleaned once a week by a professional cleaning company, something that was normally the employees’ job.

Each employee was given a $2 raise and 13 new employees have been hired to handle the sudden influx of customers.

But the employee who spoke to The N&O on April 1 said these were “token efforts.”

He said he’s seen as many as 20 or 30 people in the store at a time, some who are just looking for special items and don’t purchase anything. Many pay with cash, too, which he worries could be contaminated.

Tony Dubois, the Orange County ABC general manager, said there was a rush of customers at the beginning of the pandemic, but stores are now “settling down to a little bit more of a normal traffic pattern.” He said the only time customers have flooded the store since was when an April Fools’ Day post on Facebook caused many residents to think the stores were closing.

Dubois said the stores can’t ban cash payment, because they’re trying to strike a balance between customer service and safety.

“They [customers] made the drive out here. You don’t want to tell them they can’t buy the stuff,” he said.

However, the stores are now letting customers scan their own products and have turned off the requirement for credit card signatures, to remove some of the points of contact during sales.

At Wake County ABC stores, general manager Ike Wheeler said the stores cut down maximum customer capacity to 25 for its largest stores and five for the smallest one. It has also ordered masks for employees and taken other measures similar to Orange County.

The Orange County ABC employee who asked to remain anonymous said people should stop coming to the store altogether if they don’t need liquor. “Don’t come in, it’s just not that important,” he said. “The average person doesn’t need to go.”

Dubois said he respects the fact that employees are concerned, but said some people are dependent on alcohol and “I don’t think it’s up to one of our employees to decide things differently.”

State Sen. Jeff Jackson, D-Mecklenburg, wrote in his newsletter and on Twitter earlier this week that ABC stores need to stay open to not add another problem to hospitals during the pandemic.

“It’s because we have a lot of people who are chemically dependent on alcohol and if we suddenly cut off their access they would go into withdrawal and flood the emergency rooms, which we can’t have right now,” Jackson wrote.

Kelly Connor, communications manager for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said, “Essential businesses for food, medicine and other supplies, including ABC stores, may remain open but should implement social distancing practices to protect their employees and customers... And while restaurants, bars and other areas of communal gathering must be closed, people should be able to buy items used in their day-to-day lives.”

‘Risk getting something that can kill me’

A woman who works part-time for distribution companies that stock items in retail stores told The N&O that on any given weekday, she can usually be found restocking items like DVDs, beverages and jewelry and making sure they’re tagged correctly.

She contacted the N&O in late March, worried about having no protective equipment to wear as some of the stores she works in were counted as essential.

“What is essential about making sure a DVD is on a shelf?” she said in a phone interview. “I’m expected to move around all these different things that everybody has been touching.”

She said one of the companies she contracts with told her the work she does is essential because the stores are still open, but she said she couldn’t take the risk. She uses an inhaler for seasonal allergies and she called the coronavirus “scary” for her health.

Her last shift was just before the governor’s stay-at-home order took effect and she’s been home since.

She said she’s still employed, but not working any hours until stay-at-home orders are lifted. She has applied for unemployment, though she’s unsure if she meets the criteria. While she said she has some savings and her utility bills are on a credit card, she’s worrying about funds in the future.

Her last paycheck arrived on Friday. But she knows working part-time in possibly packed retail settings isn’t the right decision for her health.

“For three hours a day of pay, do you really want to go in there and do that?” she said. “I don’t want to go out there and risk getting something that can kill me.”