Grocery stores on the front line

A few weeks ago the workers at Brookshire Brothers Grocers were calmly stocking shelves, scanning products and chatting with the regulars.

Then, almost overnight, a little bug from Wuhan, China, came along and everything changed.

The store’s shelves were cleared faster than they could be restocked. Basics were in short supply. And, the workers at Brookshire Brothers joined law enforcement officers and medical professionals on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.

“They call us essential personnel now,” says Karen Brittain, who manages Brookshire Brothers’ busy on-line ordering and delivery operation. “Who would have thunk it?”

For supermarkets, Friday, March 13 was kind of like D-Day. That’s the day the panic buying started. The day before, things were normal. Then suddenly Friday, the 13th, carts were piled high and food and supplies were flying out the door. For the workers that meant stress, longer hours and potential exposure to a lot of people who could carry the dreaded virus.

“All our employees have been working hard to make sure our customers are being taken care of,” says store manager Dalen Welch.

He was on vacation visiting family in the Dallas area when the tsunami of worried customers hit. “They (store employees) called me and said, ‘There’s something going on here,’ ” recalls Dalen, who cut his vacation short and immediately headed back to Wimberley. “When I saw the store my first thought was just ‘wow’. How could this happen?”

It took four days to get the produce section back to a state that resembled normal. “It was really shot,” says Dalen.

Settling down — a little

Things are starting to settle down now. Some products — toilet paper, paper towels, flour — can still be hard to come by but the shelves are well stocked. There’s plenty of meat, dairy products and canned goods. There’s enough sugar in stock to last a couple days.

Two or three trucks a day arrive to replenish inventory.

The arrival time of the resupply trucks is guarded. Dalen gets calls asking about their schedules. “There must be a lot of communication out there on the Wimberley forums. It gets here and it’s immediately gone.”

Despite the long, sometimes stressful, hours, the Brookshire Brothers workers have felt the love. Customers have given Karen, the on-line sales manager, cookies and muffins as well as heartfelt thank yous. “It feels good to provide a service to people who are in need,” Karen says.

The Brookshire Brothers market in Wimberley employs about 75 people and it is looking to hire more. The current workers are being given a $2-an-hour bonus.

The folks at Brookshire Brothers take their current responsibility seriously. With many restaurants closed or with limited service, and schools closed, grocery stores quickly became even more important. “The community has been like “we gotta eat,’ ” says Dalen.

As the manager Dalen dashes all over the store, lending a hand unloading trucks or fixing a plexiglass sneeze guard that fell in the pharmacy department.

One of his primary concerns is protecting the health of the workers.

“We have heightened the frequency of cleaning our belts and keypads. Food safety is in our DNA,” says Sally Alvis, the Lufkin-based company’s Senior Director of Marketing and Public Relations.

Being prepared

Brookshire Brothers has a thick binder of emergency plans that were quickly implemented.

“We have a company-wide hurricane preparedness plan which can be altered for disasters such as floods and tornadoes,” explains Sally. “But this is different. It’s an evolving epidemic. This is unlike any natural disaster we have been through and we have been through a lot of them.

“No warehouse was prepared for what happened. You see how quickly everything changed.”

There were also rapid changes in the supply chains. Sally says manufacturers, for example, who once made numerous kinds of ketchup just started making one basic ketchup so they could ramp up production. That explains why some of the shelves don’t have the normal array of choices.

“There was a week when Coca-Cola only made four or five flavors,” Dalen says. The Coca-Cola company owns hundreds of brands worldwide.

Business has been booming, both in the store and on-line. On a typical day, Brookshire Brothers can handle about 50 on-line orders and deliveries. Currently, orders are backed up two to three days.

“We are very busy these days because people are taking precautions. Some people have compromised health issues and need our help,” says Karen, who has been with the employee-owned company for five years. “It was interesting. People were so concerned. We did everything we could to fill as many orders as possible.”

The store has instituted numerous measures to protect both the customers and employees. Hand sanitizers and disinfectants are everywhere. Frequent hand washing is mandatory. Sneeze guards separate checkers and customers at the registers. Markers on the floor mandate “social distancing.”

“Business came hard that first weekend,” says Dalen, who lives in Woodcreek with his wife and 9-month-old daughter. “But everyone was very understanding and we have had very few customer complaints. Customers have been very nice. They know we have been putting ourselves at risk.”

The chain, started by brothers Tom and Austin Brookshire, has been in operation since 1921 and there are now 116 Brookshire Brothers locations in Texas and Louisiana.

The Wimberley Brookshire Brothers store is at 14100 RR12. It’s open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. For on-line orders — called Brookshire Brothers Anywhere — go to www.brookshirebrothers.com/store-location/store-67. They offer curbside pickup or home delivery. There’s also a drivethrough pharmacy.