The man, who works at a large supermarket chain and wished to remain anonymous, said that whilst his employers have taken all the right steps to protect their shop floor staff, customers have been ignoring the social distancing rules.
‘‘They queue up outside, but once inside the store it’s a free-for-all,’’ he said.
‘‘We have masks, but they don’t do you any good when people are breathing over you and literally stepping on you. People think if they run past you quickly they won’t catch the virus.
‘‘They will reach over your shoulder, they won’t say excuse me. All the shops have got lines (for social distancing) on every aisle, but shoppers don’t see them, they don’t care, they just want their food.’’
Supermarket staff have been identified as key workers, keeping citizens fed through lockdown. But supermarkets are, for many, now the place where we encounter the largest number of other people from outside our household; placing them as one of the key locations for Coronavirus transmission.
The man said being sworn at, when asking shoppers to observe social distancing, is a ‘‘regular thing’’.
‘‘There’s not a colleague that that doesn’t happen to. That’s what we talk about most during the day, about the abuse we get.’’
And he has even had death threats after telling someone to move back.
‘‘The abuse is awful. People have said ‘I know where you live, I’ll burn your house down’.
‘‘We’ve got colleagues who are going home and looking after elderly parents, some looking after those with terminal illnesses. They are trying to deal with their personal life and then coming into work and getting dog’s abuse - people saying to you ‘I hope you die’.’’
He said the situation makes him feel ‘very frightened’.
‘‘I’m not frightened of shoppers, I’m frightened of what they carry. I have young children at home.’’
He said all supermarket staff want is to be treated with courtesy.
’’We don’t want to take anything away from the NHS or care workers, but we are the third national scandal. We don’t want clapped, we just want customers to treat us with respect.’’
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