Fareway thankful for 'every employee'

GREENFIELD — Matt Elbert's career at Fareway Stores began when he was a high school student in Algona. After he went full-time and later completed a management course the company offers he found himself with his young family in Greenfield.

Elbert is just one example of someone who is on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 here in Adair County in the grocery industry.

As assistant manager of the Greenfield store, Elbert said he "tries to get his hands dipped into a little bit of everything" and that has given him an informed perspective on how the grocery store has been impacted by the novel coronavirus.

"I think it was when Governor [Kim] Reynolds made the announcement that they were going to close the schools for x amount of weeks," Elbert said. "You could tell that parents were maybe panicking a little bit and wanted to make sure they had enough groceries at home for having the kids home all day everyday. They were stocking up and you could definitely tell that there were more customers coming in and out of the door."

Elbert and store manager Nathan Hoover say that from the start, the frequency of deliveries to the store hasn't had to change. Various vendors deliver to the store on a daily basis and only a few items, like toilet paper, bread, water and cleaning supplies have ever been at risk of being sold out since the pandemic begin.

Also, Fareway recently instituted different hours. They are closing one hour earlier each night at all stores. The first hour of each shopping day (from 8 to 9 a.m.) is reserved for eldery or immune compromised customers.

"We're making sure things are clean in the morning and several times throughout the day so our customers are safe when they come in," Hoover said. "It's not that we didn't do a lot before, but we do a ton more cleaning and sanitizing now. We were like everyone, we ran out of toilet paper and bread was hard to get for awhile, also yeast, flour and sugar."

Hoover said last Friday that while toilet paper remained a "hot button" item that remained hard to get, the availability of other items in the store has begun to straighten out.

"We're getting some toilet paper everyday, we're trying to get it out as soon as we can," Hoover said.

Elbert praised the entire team of workers in the store for how hard they've worked through this pandemic.

"Everybody does a great job here, they've all worked hard and done what we've asked," he said. "They've put in longer hours week after week to make sure our customers get taken care of. Overall they do a great job and Nathan and I are very pleased with all of them."

Hoover said that in return for good service they receive, shoppers can show their gratitude to workers in the grocery industry at this time by following a few simple requests.

Fareway asks that customers reserve the first hour of the day for those they're set aside for, limiting trips to once a week when possible. They also ask that if it is possible, shoppers respect the store's suggestion of having only one person per shopping cart during this time. The store also encourages, but does not require, shoppers to wear face masks and follow all common social distancing guidelines and accompanying markings where they're placed.

Besides that, a smile and a thank you go a long way, Hoover said.

"Please help us thank our staff. They're working some long hours doing some things for us they wouldn't normally do," Hoover said. "Every bit of encouragement you can give them helps. I'm thankful for every employee here. I could not do this without them."