Wyatt VanDusen of Gene’s Heartland Foods said the last two years have been difficult due to the pandemic.
This is the first story in a three-part series examining the second anniversary of the pandemic and its impact on some of the essential workers in Eudora
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the phrase “essential workers” echoed throughout the country as people praised those who kept communities running in a tumultuous time.
These essential workers include nurses, doctors, teachers, as well as grocery store workers. When many people avoided going into stores to buy groceries, these workers often had no choice and continued to stock shelves and help customers check out despite the health risks.
Wyatt VanDusen, a manager at Gene’s Heartland Foods, has worked at the store for five years but said the last two have been the most stressful.
“Back when COVID first started in 2020, you couldn’t really be out on the floor, couldn’t be out doing anything,” VanDusen said.
As a result, a later shift was created so workers could continue to stock shelves while avoiding as much contact as possible with customers. This resulted in some problems with scheduling, as teenage workers could not stay that late.
“It did create some challenges with teenagers, getting people to work, being able to fully do my job,” VanDusen said. “After time passed, it got better. In recent times, we’ve been doing better.”
Michael Hoover, a meat cutter who has worked at Gene’s for six years, said he took a break from working at the store but returned a year and a half ago.
Hoover said he’s felt supported by the community and most of the uncertainty he’s experienced has been the result of ever-changing prices.
“Prices are different. They’re getting ridiculous,” Hoover said. “They go up and down. For this department, we have price changes every week. We’ll see how things go with the way gas is going up.”
Store manager Lance Handley also said fluctuating prices have been a challenge, as well as finding people to fill jobs.
Handley said despite being an essential worker, he doesn’t feel that appreciated. His wife is a nurse and he said health care workers have been thanked for their efforts during the pandemic much more than grocery store workers.
“We had to show up to work, we get sick just like everybody else, we meet all the people who come in without masks on and cough all over us, give us all their germs,” Handley said. “It doesn’t seem like the grocery store workers got nearly as much praise as the health care workers.”
VanDusen hesitated to call himself an essential worker since it’s a term he feels the community doesn’t understand.
“People still come in, and they treat us like it doesn’t matter,” VanDusen said. “If we are essential, we should be treated like that a little bit and treated better, but that’s definitely not the case.”
VanDusen said he thinks this is a pattern in the community, and he wishes people showed more courtesy toward grocery store workers.
“If something’s not going [the customer’s] way, they just say ‘screw it’ and walk out, or make a scene, and there’s nothing I can do about it, but it hurts,” VanDusen said.
Despite this negativity, VanDusen said the employees of Gene’s have banded together to get through the pandemic and continue serving Eudora.
“Everyone’s going through their own thing, everyone’s dealing with their own loss, and by understanding that, we can get through it,” VanDusen said.
Handley said he agrees the workers have shown great effort throughout the pandemic, even when some left the store over the past two years.
“Everyone else stepped up and took care of what needed to be done,” Handley said.
Reach reporter Abby Shepherd at [email protected]