{"id":6071,"date":"2020-04-19T13:10:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T17:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=6071"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T20:24:41","slug":"the-pandemics-effect-on-front-line-workers-the-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/the-pandemics-effect-on-front-line-workers-the-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pandemics Effect On Front Line Workers: The Stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Max Thaysen<\/p>\n

In this episode, we get a deep dive from\u00a0Eric Hargrave<\/a>, manager at the\u00a0Cortes Natural Food Cooperative<\/a>, and\u00a0Bill Dougan<\/a>, manager at the\u00a0Gorge Harbour Marina Resort General Store<\/a>. \u00a0These are two fellows who run grocery stores and have given a lot of thought to the modern food chain.\u00a0 They present their insights with wit and charm. Together we explored the impacts that the\u00a0Covid-19 pandemic<\/a>\u00a0has had on their lives and their businesses.\u00a0 I was especially curious about the pandemics impacts on frontline workers \u2014 those working the tills and stocking shelves.<\/p>\n

We began with understanding all the new stresses, responsibilities and risks associated with the job and how the managers are supporting the workers through this.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"The<\/a>

Pre COVID days - Courtesy Cortes Natural Food Co-op<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

How Society Values Those Workers<\/h2>\n

I wondered how society valued \u2014 and compensated \u2014 these workers before and how that might be changing now.\u00a0 Grocery workers on Cortes generally begin around $15-$16\/hr, a little above the minimum wage in Canada.\u00a0 And after years of service, they may expect to climb as high as $18 or even $22\/hr.<\/p>\n

Bill wondered aloud how this compares to a construction worker, who may begin at $18 or $20\/hr and climb quickly to $25 and eventually to $35-$40.\u00a0 Is this a gender biased valuation of different positions in society?\u00a0 What does it say about those values now that grocery workers are considered among the most essential front-line workers.<\/p>\n

We talked about where the standard wages come from for grocery workers:\u00a0 supply and demand, competition in the grocery business, or\/and an accident of history.<\/p>\n

\n

\"THE

Exterior of the Gorge Harbour store during summer \u2013 courtesy Gorge Harbour.com<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Cortes Residents Shopping On Island<\/h2>\n

Both managers told me that the encouragement to stay home has resulted in a lot more people doing their shopping on Cortes. This has been great for business.<\/p>\n

They suggested that more people shopping locally would have many effects. More local food could be grown and sold, prices would fall because hard costs like shipping would be shared. Then wages could rise and jobs created.\u00a0 And more of the dollars that we spend for our necessary supplies would stay on Cortes and circulate around.<\/p>\n

And we get some juicy insider information about whether there was panic buying, hoarding and how people\u2019s shopping habits have changed, possibly for the better.<\/p>\n

How Things Changed<\/h2>\n

And finally, reflecting on how much has changed with society in such a short amount of time, Bill tells us how we can change anything, and quickly, and it has been amazing to see that. Maybe we can even tackle the big challenges of our lifetime \u2014 biodiversity loss, climate change and human overshoot of planet earth.<\/p>\n

Top photo credit:<\/em>\u00a0Courtesy Cortes Natural Food Co-op<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Max Thaysen In this episode, we get a deep dive from\u00a0Eric Hargrave, manager at the\u00a0Cortes Natural Food Cooperative, and\u00a0Bill Dougan, manager at the\u00a0Gorge Harbour Marina Resort General Store. \u00a0These are two fellows who run grocery stores and have given a lot of thought to the modern food chain.\u00a0 They present their insights with wit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,218],"tags":[284,545],"radio":[],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=6071"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=6071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}