Q&A

Kimberly Rullan is a 22-year-old cashier at Stop & Shop in her hometown of Greenvale, Long Island. She lives with her grandmother and began working for Stop & Shop three and a half years ago. She spoke about how coronavirus has affected her both at work and at home.

When was the first time you felt the impact of the coronavirus while working?

I would say right after it was announced on the news that everyone started getting sick. Right when it started spreading to the United States, getting closer. That's when everything started going haywire. The first week there was an overload of people that would stock up on everything.

What was a typical day at Stop and Shop like before the virus?

I would say that everyone was a lot less stressed out. There weren’t as many customers that would come, at once. Customer service is now closed at the store. Before, I would have so many people coming to my line to return stuff. Now if someone has bought something, and they take it home, they aren’t allowed to return it. They're only allowed to return things they've just bought but haven't taken out of the store.

Does your store have any other new rules in place because of the virus?

We have limited certain items that people have been stocking up on: meat, toilet paper, and paper towels. We don't have soaps, like hand soap. We have a lot of body wash. There’s no limits on hand soaps so they sell out.

We've started to do one line—no more lines at the registers. We have boxes for where to stand and arrows throughout the aisles. We have someone directing traffic. They put up plexiglass where the customers are so they're not so face-to-face with us. We're constantly cleaning, which I think is a good thing. We're trying to keep everyone safe.

New York banned plastic recently, how is your store dealing with that during this time?

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, they stopped producing paper bags, and now we only have plastic bags. They said that the plastic bags are more sanitary… use could just grab it and go instead of reusing the reusable bags with the germs of the customer. They don't even want us bagging; they want the customers to bag their own stuff.

Have customers changed the way they interact with you?

I feel like some people are more aggressive, especially from the amount of stress that it's putting on people.

How has the virus personally affected you?

It's made me more cautious, more aware. I try to keep my distance away from anyone. Touching stuff like money — it can be touched by so many people. I'm so nervous to get anything on my hands. As soon as I touch money I'll immediately use hand sanitizer. You don't have a sink next to you to always wash your hands. It's hard to run to the bathroom, wash your hands and come back, so the best thing we have is hand sanitizer.

For the first two weeks, they didn't provide any masks for us. They just provided a face shield, and they provide us with gloves. I feel like I'm always worried at work. This is just how it has to go… I can't not worry. I'm scared. I live with my grandma and I don't want to get her sick. I have no choice but to work.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.