This is Tarik. He is a cashier and processes online orders for pick up at a home improvement store.
“When quarantine started and my store first closed, I was feeling a little anxious. It was this idea of, ‘How am I going to adjust to this routine?’ and ‘When is this going to end?’
I interact with customers who are grateful for [my workplace] still being open so they can continue their daily tasks. And sometimes preserve their income, as we have customers looking for certain items to keep their business going. When I get those customers that are so grateful, that fear turns into gratitude because I’m helping people instead of just risking my life. Now it’s just a balance of gratitude and fear. Hope is still there.
The last day of our store being open [before we went online-only], we had a lot of people in the store. Everyone was trying to get their ‘last minute’ stuff.
We didn’t let any people in the store after 5 pm. When that happened, we got a lot of people being aggressive.
They said this was pathetic of us, that it was rude we were doing this. I felt like they were being selfish and were projecting their frustrations onto us. To hear a customer coming up to me and saying these kinds of things, it was unexpected. It showed an unfortunate side of humanity, of what happens when we’re desperate.”
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