Doing the Essential: Grocery Shopping in the Bay Area During the Pandemic

In the wake of shelter in place orders, grocery stores — an essential business, have become one of the few places where people can go to stock the pantry and get some fresh air. But empty shelves and large gatherings of people are topics of concern for shoppers and health officials alike.

What precautions should I take while grocery shopping?

New research suggests that while the virus can survive on cardboard for a day, and on plastic for several days, it becomes less infectious over time.

“It’s not to say that the risk of [contracting the virus at] the grocery store is zero, it’s just the risk of getting something from groceries themselves is relatively low,” says Dr. Anne Liu, an immunologist at Stanford Health.

“The main places to be worried about are places where people get together and crowd, or surfaces that a lot of people touch,” Liu says.

Rather than worrying about your can of beans or tomato, Lui says pay attention instead to your proximity to other people, especially if they’re showing symptoms, because that is the main way the virus is transmitted.

According to the WHO, people who have contracted COVID-19 can spread the virus by touching their faces and other surfaces so wash your hands thoroughly before and after grocery shopping.

Liu recommends wiping down grocery cart handles and using hand sanitizer after using credit card machines. If you are worried about your grocery items, wipe them down with food-safe wipes or produce wash.

What precautions should I take with food I purchase to prevent contracting coronavirus?

The Food and Drug Administration is reassuring consumers that there’s no evidence of the novel coronavirus transmission through food or food packaging but for those concerned, find some tips on handling groceries here.

At home, Ronald Fong of California Grocers Association says that produce should always be washed, whether there is a pandemic or not. But now more than ever, it is critical to wash your hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after preparing fresh produce.

He does not recommend keeping groceries outside, especially for temperature-sensitive food, but for those who are very concerned, non-perishable products, like packaged toilet paper and canned goods can be kept in a sanitized area for a couple of days.

Fong also recommends washing reusable bags and limiting your shopping trips to reduce your amount of contact with other people.

The FDA has recommendations on how to properly clean your produce here.

I’m seeing empty shelves at my grocery store. When will things be restocked?

Experts are saying the reason that we’re seeing empty shelves is because people are overbuying not because there is a shortage in supply.

Supermarkets are seeing an unprecedented demand for products in addition to increased store traffic according to Lauren Strange from the National Grocers Association, a national trade association representing  retail and wholesale grocers.

Strange says, “the amount of product, whether it’s general merchandise [or] paper products to the food supply, is intact. It’s plentiful.”

The issue, she says, is distributors can’t get the products to our grocery stores fast enough because of the “new shopping pattern that customers have displayed over the past few weeks.” Meaning, because people have been hoarding it seems like there is less.

In the past month, sales of shelf stable items like beans, rice, pasta, peanut butter and canned meat have increased dramatically according to data from the research firm Nielsen.

“We’re seeing some customers that are literally buying for three months or six months… if we continue this type of shopping pattern, there’s no way our distribution channels can catch up with that kind of volume,” says Ronald Fong, the CEO of California Grocers Association, a non-profit trade association representing over 300 retail members in California and Nevada.

According to UNFI, one of the largest food distributors in the United States, some warehouses are running at 200 percent of their average capacity for this time of year.

Fong says grocery distributors need a couple weeks to get things back to normal. So the next time you go shopping, Fong recommends buying enough to get through the week but also making sure to leave enough for others.

How are workers protecting themselves out in the fields and in grocery stores?

With grocery stores and suppliers facing high demand, workers — from cashiers in local markets to farm workers out in the fields — are at the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.

Farming and food production is considered “essential businesses,” so agricultural employers and farm workers who often live paycheck-to-paycheck, aren’t concerned about lack of work but rather how to keep workers safe.

According to Armando Elenes, the secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers labor union, many pickers in the field are still coming into work even if they are feeling sick.

“If you call in sick, you’re going to be responsible for stopping the entire crew,” Elenes says. “[There’s] a lot of pressure on somebody not to say something. And that’s really scary… workers are really petrified of losing work because they don’t have a safety net,” he adds.

Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias told KQED earlier this week, that he’s worried undocumented farmworkers who lack health care coverage might wait as long as possible before seeking treatment.

“My biggest concern with the undocumented residents is that they’re going to be scared to come in and be checked and ask for a test, even though we know that they’re sick,” Arias said. “They’re so used to going to work, irrespective of their health conditions or whether they’re under the weather and running a fever.”

Maintaining social distancing is another difficult question both agricultural employers and grocery store owners have struggled to answer in a field that often requires them to be in close proximity with others.

Grocery store workers in the Bay Area who are coming in contact with dozens of people every day, are reporting that some local managers at retail outlets like Target and grocery chains like Trader Joe’s and Vons are telling workers they cannot wear protective masks — and in some cases even gloves — at work.

John Grant, president of the labor union United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, says the union had to negotiate for weeks to get companies to let workers wear masks on the job. Trader Joe’s, Vons, and Target have official policies that now allow workers to wear their own masks and gloves. But that does not ensure that local managers are passing along the message.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to heighten the public’s reliance on grocery stores, labor unions are working to ensure the safety of their workers.

As a statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers says, “By increasing the protection of grocery clerks, we increase the protection of the community.”

Copyright 2020 KQED