50 signatures reached
To: Mayors, Governors, and CEOs of Grocery Chains
Require Curbside Pickup ONLY at ALL Grocery Stores!
Grocery store workers are now considered "essential front-line workers" in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though many of them still work for minimum wage, even the slight "hazard pay" bumps aren't enough to endanger their own health so we can eat. Though, they continue to do so every single day, some working double shifts, extra days, just to keep us all fed. Cashiers and stock people are some of America's most thankless jobs, and though we like to say they're now "heroes", like most retail jobs, they're treated as second-class citizens.
What can we do?
It's time to ban customers from going inside the store.
We need to REQUIRE all grocery stores to only allow online/phone ordering and curbside pickup. We can effectively keep the same amount of staff employed, converting stock people to shoppers to prep the orders, cashiers and baggers can deliver to the cars in multiple lanes. The shoppers can pay online ahead or through contactless payments and the employees can place the groceries directly into the trunk of the car.
Why is this important?
Dozens of grocery store workers have died from COVID-19, despite measures being put in place, such as masks, temperature checks, and limiting shopper capacity. This clearly isn't working. It's not safe for the workers and it's not safe for other shoppers.
The aisles in any store are too small to allow social distancing to take effect. Shoppers meander about trying to figure out what to buy, sometimes reaching over one another. We need to eliminate the variables of people who cannot take precautions on behalf of public safety.
We're in a time when we have the technology to reduce the interaction that we have with workers and each other while fighting the virus. Effectively, we can turn the grocery stores into warehouses, and keep shoppers contained within their own automobiles, minimizing almost all risk to everyone. This will not only alleviate the health risks, but the anxiety of everyone involved.