When New York State legislators considered a ban on plastic bags, Wegmans opposed it. When the ban passed, Wegmans enacted the change before the new law took effect. In essence, the company came out looking like an early defender of the environment when all it ready did was institute an unwanted ban a few weeks…
Tag: Coronavirus
Wegmans allows masks
Under pressure from employees and a local legislator, Wegmans has altered a policy that prevented workers from wearing masks. The company added this statement to its press release detailing its response to Covid-19: The statement did not mention supply of masks, which would seem to imply that employees are responsible for obtaining them on their…
More openness needed from Wegmans
We had been wondering – in the absence of any policy announcements by Wegmans – what the procedures would be when employees were, inevitably, diagnosed with the coronavirus. Yesterday, officials in Onondaga County, NY, said a worker at the DeWitt store had tested positive. I believe, though I can’t be sure, that this is the…
Mortality math
Those who are fascinated by numbers often have a morbid streak. It’s not only insurance analysts, financial planners and medical researchers who study death rates. Many of us commoners do, too. I’ll admit that sometimes, while attending the sort of mass-audience events that are now banned, I would mentally do the calculations. If there are…
Cake and cookies: your patriotic duty
I spent much of last night filling shelves with sacks of flour and bags of sugar. In the continuous overbuying that has accompanied the COVID-19 crisis, flour and sugar are outranked only by hand sanitizers, paper towels and toilet paper. Baking, it would seem, is the ultimate comfort. Wegmans is selling cake mixes, chocolate chips,…
Thinning ranks
“Wegmans is hiring” signs are posted in the front windows and at the registers. Actually, Wegmans is almost always hiring. When much of your labor force consists of teenagers, college students and senior citizens, turnover is constant. But the sign in the front window is new. And corporate has made a point of making the…
Finding comfort in endcaps
In grocery lingo, an endcap is the set of shelves at the front or rear of an aisle. Markets typically usually use this space to highlight new or unusual products or to give prominent display to sale items. Endcaps also change with the seasons. At Easter, you’ll see chocolate bunnies. At Thanksgiving, stuffing mix and…
Flashing red lights
There is a red light near the top of the wall in the front of the store and another one just like it in the stockroom. Employees are trained to notice when these lights blink, for it means cooler or freezer doors have broken or been left open. A protected environment has been compromised. We…
Dwindling desperation
If the level of anxiety can be measured by the length of the lines waiting for Wegmans to open each day, then people are calming down. The line outside my store at 6:30 this morning consisted of just one person, an elderly woman staring resolutely at the door. That doesn’t count a few scattered cars…
Smart move: purchase limits
Purchase limits work. We ended shopping hours on Saturday with chicken and beef in the meat cases, bread and toilet paper on the shelves. Wegmans has imposed limits on many items, ranging from diapers to spaghetti to carrots. (Precise limits are posted on the shelves.) The restrictions not only calm frantic buying, they calm frantic…