Federal regulators knew about serious safety problems in dozens of the nation’s meat plants that became deadly coronavirus hot spots this spring but took six months to take action, recently citing two plants and finally requiring changes to protect workers. The financial penalties for a Smithfield Foods plant in South [...]
After spending seven weeks isolated in my bedroom sick with COVID-19, I stood in front of the Ralphs grocery store where I work, bracing to return. It took me about five minutes to make the decision to cross the threshold and go back to work. I wasn’t sure I could [...]
The president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) says grocery stores should be kicking out shoppers who refuse to put on a mask. Marc Perrone spoke with CBS MoneyWatch about how the virus is affecting food and other essential workers. "I don't think that our workers ought to [...]
When the coronavirus hit, even the most enthusiastic cooks had to adjust to a new, more complicated relationship with their kitchens. For the first time in a generation, Americans began spending more money at the supermarket than at places where someone else made the food. Grocers saw eight years of [...]
Despite being a nascent and still federally illegal operation, most states deemed cannabis companies and ancillary services as essential businesses when COVID-19 hit the U.S. Since that time, consumer demand has sustained – if not grown – and patients have been able to continue getting their medicine. Now, the legal [...]
Worker advocates and food safety experts have long called attention to the speed at which poultry plants’ lines move, because the faster they move, the faster the workers have to perform repetitive tasks, sometimes with sharp tools. COVID-19 has amplified those concerns, since quick line speeds tend to require close [...]
In the early days of the pandemic, when grocery stores in the United States ran low on staples like toilet paper, people flocked to Walmart and Target to stock up. Five months later, as the number of coronavirus cases remains high, shoppers continue to buy from the big-box retailers in [...]
Sitting on a storied site less than two miles from the U.S. Capitol building, Safeway’s newest location in Washington, D.C., brings some of the latest ideas in the grocery chain’s playbook to a spot that housed another Safeway until two years ago. That store was torn down in mid-2018 to [...]
The next decade of Ryan Sciullo’s career may look a little different than his first 15 years of selling grocery-anchored shopping centers. Sciullo, a senior member of CBRE’s national retail group, specializes in shopping centers anchored by food retailers like Giant, Trader Joe’s and BJ’s Wholesale Club. As Covid-19 has [...]
This spring, for the first time, Angel Manners found purpose and pride at the supermarket where she has worked the past decade. Customers praised her as a hero for putting herself at risk during the pandemic. Bosses boosted her hourly pay by $2. Suddenly, her job was essential. Nearly five [...]