With the COVID-19 virus now well and truly part of British life, many people are waking up to the reality of what the future is going to be like. Food shortages and empty shelves are pushing the need for more stock to be delivered and put out on the shelves of stores across the United Kingdom.
This shows no signs of slowing down, as people react to empty shelves by counterintuitively buying more and more to help see out the time period to come. However, supermarkets appear to be acting in response.
Supermarket giants Morrisons look set to re-act the most proactively, hiring some 3,500 new staff to handle soaring demand for more home deliveries.
Hardship Funds and Pledges to Pay Sick Staff
With many people choosing to do their shopping online to avoid store contact, Morrisons looks set to try and handle the extra need for home deliveries with thousands of new drivers.
This will see 2,500 new pickers brought in as well as a host of new drivers to help manage home deliveries quicker and easier.
It will also see around 100 more stores for people to choose from, with the extra staff – including 1,000 new staff in distribution venues – likely to open up more space for shopping opportunities with the UK giants.
This will be launched from the end of March, with simple and easy to arrange food parcels being set up to help those to get online shopping ordered via the phone. The supermarket also gained another reputational boon by offering various measures to help staff.
From hardship funds and pledges to pay staff who are sick with COVID-19 without issue, as well as re-deploying vulnerable colleagues in safe places, the supermarket has gone into overdrive to try and ensure that people do not have to go without.
With the Chief Executive David Potts saying that they expect the “weeks and months ahead to be very testing”, they have stepped up to the plate.
Given how many people are now out of work, this should go a long way to ensuring that more can be done to make people get the supplies they need to survive and see through this worrying crisis.