- Ann Larson’s new book exposes the grim reality of poverty wages and harsh conditions for supermarket workers in Utah.
- Workers face low pay, no benefits, and physical injuries, with some even wearing diapers due to limited breaks.
- Larson advocates for a union-led federal commission to overhaul supermarket architecture and worker benefits.
Since the post-war migration to the suburbs, supermarkets have become an integral part of American society, celebrated for their fresh produce, convenience, and friendly service.
However, beneath the bright lights and the hum of Muzak, there are underlying issues, as explored by Ann Larson in her new book, “Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register” (Atria/One Signal Publishers, June 9).
In October 2020, Larson took a job as a supervisor and cashier at a grocery store in Utah. There, she observed her coworkers struggling to make ends meet on some of the lowest wages in the retail sector, enduring the physical demands of the job, and even resorting to wearing diapers due to infrequent breaks.
“It was only by working inside the grocery industry that I truly understood the harsh realities of the job and its impact on workers,” Larson reveals in her gripping account from the perspective of a cashier.
Despite their efforts to provide fresh food for customers, her colleagues often couldn’t afford to feed themselves. They lacked overtime pay, retirement benefits, and union representation. Many had to choose between buying food and covering expenses like healthcare, rent, and gas. Dental issues were common but unaffordable to address.
“Throughout my year on the job, grocery workers nationwide earned an average of less than $15 an hour,” Larson notes, with her own pay as a supervisor being $15.80 an hour.
One of her co-workers, Stanley, had his credit card denied when he tried to buy a burrito for lunch.
Paula, Larson’s boss and a manager, bought three-day old meat with an expired sell-by date to sustain herself.
Cindy, 79 and a grocery-bagger for nearly a decade, could only afford a small cup of soup or a two-dollar children’s meal for lunch.
Willow, a cashier, had a severe case of eczema around her nose, her knuckles and fingers with skin flaking off onto the register as she rang up customers. She didn’t have enough money to treat the condition.
Working at the supermarket didn’t just pay poorly, it also took a toll on the body. Cashiers routinely suffered painful musculoskeletal injuries from the continual movement of passing items over the scanner.
One checker, Darth, turned his light off when there was a lull in customers. He’d worked behind the till six years and often had a severe stabbing pain in his arm, a musculoskeletal injury common to cashiers.
Larson believes that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) needs to step in and protect retail employees from injuries but thinks that the organization has become toothless in recent years.
Employees have little choice but to fall in line, quit or leave. Their every minute is tracked, and they’re always under surveillance — scanners, camera and time-keeping machines that won’t let employees sign in if more than 15 minutes late.
Bathroom breaks were only allowed on scheduled breaks. One co-worker, Travis, peed his pants when he didn’t make it until break time. Several colleagues resorted to wearing diapers in case they couldn’t hold it.
“I’ve been wearing a diaper since Paula said no more bathroom breaks,” Stanley confesses in the book. “I prefer not to have to pee in my pants. But sometimes it’s unavoidable.”
Working the store’s front end as a supervisor, Larson suffered from chronically aching arms and shoulders twenty-four hours a day and writes that “the supermarket was turning me into a judgy, ill-tempered person.”
Larson also notes that while supermarkets project an elaborate illusion to shoppers that they have multiple choices of brands and varieties, in reality it’s usually one of just a few parent companies that produce most of the products on the shelves — sometimes with dubious methods.
“While the supermarket may seem like capitalism’s greatest achievement employing more people than any other industry, so many products in stores are linked to low wages, injury, environmental destruction,” she writes.
Ultimately, she argues for a union-led federal commission directing an overhaul of supermarket architecture, reducing injuries along with providing quality health care and retirement benefits to workers, as well as mandated overtime pay.
Notably, a cost-cutting attempt by the owners of the grocery store Larson worked at to save money with self-checkout stations failed spectacularly. Customers couldn’t successfully work the technology, requiring a supervisor’s help or leaving frustrated shoppers to walk out without paying. Other markets have had similar experiences with self-checkout, demonstrating the need to value and fairly compensate grocery employees.
Larson quotes Martin Luther King Jr. writing, “All labor has dignity.”
