With heightened fears due to the ongoing pandemic and concerns over forced business shutdowns, local grocery stores are facing new challenges and scrambling to keep up with demand.
West Kentucky Star caught up with Andy Carloss, owner of Midtown Market. Carloss says they've really had to change the way they are operating within the store in an effort to follow federal, state, and local authorities guidelines to ensure the safety of staff and their customers.
Carloss said, at the end of the day it's about keeping everyone safe and healthy.
"We're adding a lot more cleaning procedures. We have to wipe off all of the carts, the doors, the furniture, the baskets, the keypads, the counters, the checking lanes, and all that," said Carloss.
He says they have eliminated a lot of their self-service items, and have also been working to make sure that everyone stays at a safe distance when in line.
In line with their effort to keep everyone healthy and safe, Carloss is also urging customers to utilize their drive-through service. He encourages everyone to call in grocery orders and they'll get them ready.
"We are really pushing the drive-through service and curbside pickup." Carloss continued, "A lot of people previously just used it to pickup sandwiches, and coffees in the morning. But now more and more people are calling in their grocery orders and coming through the drive-through to pick it up."
Carloss says the virus has caused them to lose a lot of employees that may be immunocompromised, but with the increase in demand they have also gained a lot of new employees as well.
"We're still hiring some, as far as Food Runners go. We're just taking it day by day" He said, "This last week we've added four or five, and we've got plans for two more."
Food Giant has had a similar experience. Jan Borders, Scan Coordinator at the Draffenville Food Giant, says there have been "tremendous difficulties" in regards to keeping up with demand.
"We try to keep the shelves full the best we can." She said, "We have still been getting trucks in three to four times a week. We've had trouble keeping eggs but we've only ran out of milk once. We have done really good."
Borders says with the extra cleaning and stocking, they have had to call in extra help as well.
"We have tried to go above and beyond with keeping everything sanitized. We're doing the best we can do to serve customers," She said.
You can learn more about Midtown Market and Food Giant at the links below.
On the Net:
Midtown MarketFood Giant
