Grocery retailers are accelerating hiring to have staff ready to run stores and fill online orders as employees get sick or need time off to care for children home from closed schools.
The CEOs of the major chains had a conference call with the White House on Sunday in which they said they were committed to staying open, but they also asked President Donald Trump to tell Americans to stop hoarding goods.
At a White House briefing, Trump said, “there’s no need for anyone” to hoard basic goods. His comments Sunday came as Americans for the third consecutive weekend filled shopping carts with soup, tuna, cleaning supplies and toilet paper.
The CEOs of Kroger, Tom Thumb/Albertsons, Walmart, Target, Dollar General and others told Trump in the conference call that consumers are buying three to five times the normal amounts and putting a strain on the supply chain.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, Tom Thumb and Albertsons say they are hiring 3,000 people, or about 30 people per store, to help with the increased demand and alleviate pressure on employees.
“We’re expediting the hiring process,” said Christy Lara, spokeswoman for Tom Thumb and Albertsons in Dallas. “We anticipate people working for us are impacted like everyone else. So we’re trying to make sure we’re in a position to continue to serve our customers and the community.”
In all, Tom Thumb/Albertsons will hire a total of 4,000 temporary and part-time workers in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and Louisiana, where it has 12,000 employees. Several Texas school systems are closed through March 30, Lara said, and Louisiana schools are closed until April 13.
Kroger sent out a general email to customers saying that it’s hiring. A link to Kroger’s website says it has 6,546 openings nationwide, including 519 in Texas.
“The coronavirus pandemic has created an increased demand and immediate need to accelerate our normal process,” said April Martin, Kroger’s spokeswoman in Dallas. “Our goal is to continue to serve our customers with open stores and hospitality when they need us most.”
Normally, the hiring process at Tom Thumb and Albertsons is more formal and starts with applications online, but now many temporary employees will be hired on the spot, Lara said.
“We know there are a lot of industries impacted negatively by decrease in business, so some of those people may want to be hired as temporary workers,” Lara said.
There’s a proposal in Congress to offer some workers two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave, but it only applies to employees of businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill this week.
In the meantime, workers who are living paycheck to paycheck may need temporary jobs.
Walmart, which started reducing its hours of operation to 6 a.m. from 11 p.m. on Sunday, said it can fill the increased shopper demand with its existing workforce.
“We don’t have the same issue as some of other retailers because of how we staff,” said Walmart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez. The majority of store employees are full-time workers, and they are picking up additional hours, he said. They are able to keep their existing daytime or evening shifts.
Over the past few years, Walmart stopped adding tens of thousands of additional seasonal workers for the Christmas shopping season for the same reason.
Kroger’s unfilled permanent jobs are throughout the store and warehouse operations and include e-commerce clerks, overnight grocery clerks, truck drivers and deli clerks. Certified and registered pharmacy technician openings are frequently listed.
Tom Thumb and Albertsons said that online delivery drivers don’t need a commercial driver’s license but warehouse drivers of tractor-trailers do.
Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday waived state laws that prohibit trucks from the alcohol industry from delivering supplies to grocery stores. Abbott said it will free up trucks and drivers to help with grocery deliveries.
Two national retail industry groups, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association, put out a joint statement Sunday warning against bad actors.
“Hoarding products only contributes to the fear surrounding the virus, and any hoarder acting with malicious intent to drive up prices on a secondary market should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement said.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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