Who's to Blame

While hospitals remain the frontline in battling the coronavirus, stores have become defacto ground zero for Covid culture wars.

High school-aged cashiers frequently are abused because some customers are not wearing masks, as well as the new policy of not being able to help bag groceries with reusable bags at some stores.

During the pandemic, the most pressing problem for cashiers has often been their interaction with customers who are resistant to new policies designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Whether it is for the new policy of not being able to help bag groceries, to other customers not wearing masks, to having to pay for paper bags, some customers are now more irritated than ever.

Cindy Lou is a senior in high school who started working at her local Shaw’s a year ago. Complaints lodged by customers during a regular year without COVID were usually about sales or something broken or damaged. “I now receive a myriad of complaints that have little to nothing to do with my job as a cashier” Cindy Lou explained.

As time went on Cindy Lou realized that instead of people getting accustomed to the new policies, they started getting even more frustrated and angry.

“Since I am the person serving customers, I am usually the one to blame for anything from not having a certain product to our store’s bagging policy,” she said.

On July 1st of 2020, Vermont implemented a new policy of banning plastic bags which sparked anger in some customers. In addition, the fact that cashiers can’t bag reusable bags in Shaw’s made many customers upset.

“I actually greatly enjoy bagging groceries and am apologetic when I can’t, but still, people will either overreact, when I explain our bagging policy, by yelling or they will simply wait for me to finally break the rules and bag their groceries.”

Cindy Lou is a very social person and loves talking to customers that come through her line. However, after the struggles of the pandemic and enforcing the new guidelines, she feels defeated. “I’m not sure I’d actually recommend to someone this job.”

By Ping Melchior

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