On July 13, a Whole Foods employee told the INDY that more than six employees at the Chapel Hill location have tested positive for COVID-19 since July 2. The employee provided screenshots of text messages that the company sent alerting employees of the new cases, and spoke to the INDY on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their job.
“In my department, everyone that I’ve talked to has been pretty upset,” the source says. “Just because it doesn’t really feel like there’s been communication about it.”
On July 12, CBS-17 reported that there is also an outbreak of cases at the Durham Whole Foods market on Broad Street.
A national media spokesperson for the company confirmed that Whole Foods employees have tested positive at both the Chapel Hill and Durham locations, though they did not share the number of confirmed cases or whether those employees had come into contact with other employees or customers while sick.
Grocery stores are not required to disclose employee COVID-19 cases to either the public or public health departments. A number of grocery store chains across the country, including Whole Foods, have come under fire for the lack of transparency.
“All Whole Foods Market stores continue to operate under social distancing and crowd control measures,” the Whole Foods spokesperson told the INDY in a statement. “Additionally, we have installed plexiglass barriers at check out, are requiring temperature checks and face masks for anyone working in our stores, and have implemented enhanced daily cleanliness and disinfection protocols in all of our stores.”
This is not the first outbreak at the Chapel Hill location. In April, two employees tested positive, and other employees reported to the INDY that they were concerned about the way it was being handled by management.
During this outbreak, the employee got five text alerts between July 2 and July 10 stating that an employee had tested positive. On July 13, they got a text message that used the plural, for the first time: “Your location has additional cases of COVID-19.”
A document compiled online by Whole Food workers has been tracking the spread of cases in stores nationally. According to the crowd-sourced data in that document, there have been at least 32 confirmed cases in the Southeast’s 16 stores, which includes multiple cases at the Cary location.
Employees are concerned about the company’s ability to mitigate the spread. The INDY‘s source expressed concern that previous store policies, like one-way aisles and a limit on customers in the store, have been relaxed.
A different Chapel Hill Whole Foods employee told The Guardian in April that “It has been almost impossible to maintain basic social distancing practices. We’ve seen huge sales ever since the outbreak and it’s been all hands on deck.”
Since March, Whole Foods workers have held two national “sick-outs” calling on the company to give grocery store workers more protections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its track record for employee protections is not outstanding: at the beginning of the pandemic, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey had sent an email to employees suggesting that they donate PTO to employees who had contracted the virus which. That messaging was quickly walked back.
According to the company, workers who test positive are now given 2 weeks paid time off, and a store-wide response—including comprehensive cleaning and contact tracing—is put into place. In response to a question from the INDY about whether the store has a policy in place about disclosing COVID-19 outbreaks to customers, the spokesperson said that “customers are encouraged to contact our customer care team if they have questions about whether there have been positive cases in the store.”
“To see precautions being taken away—it’s disappointing, to not even have store leadership send us emails to say, we’re aware of this, we’re aware of this increase in cases, we’re trying to work on a plan to make everything safer,’” the employee told the INDY. We haven’t heard anything. We’ve just gotten these automated text messages that say the same thing, every time.”
According to state health officials, as of July 14, 89,484 people in North Carolina have tested positive for COVID-19.
Follow Deputy Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards on Twitter or send an email to [email protected].
Support independent local journalism. Join the INDY Press Club to help us keep fearless watchdog reporting and essential arts and culture coverage viable in the Triangle.
Well, when you shop at Amazon, you kinda’ deserve whatever it is you get. It’s an awful company, and nobody should be supporting them.
If the “whistleblower” employees had taken the time to be proactive and talk to store leadership, they would have received an incredibly open and warm reception. And a transparent, frank conversation about store efforts to mitigate spread – including contact tracing and additional sanitizing. Could communication be better? Always. Is the answer to run and “tell”? I’m not so sure.
Covid is here folks, that’s not news. It’s everywhere you shop, dine, go. It just is. Can’t tell you why folks at Wal Mart, Trader Joe’s, Target, Harris Teeter, etc. don’t go to the press. It’s a mystery to me. As a Whole Foods employee, I have felt very well supported and cared for.
I hope the person speaking to the press is comfortable knowing that they are causing every other person who shows up for front line work at Whole Foods – work that is in high demand and directly benefits the public – money. Schedules are written based on sales, as they are at any responsible business. Lower sales = fewer hours. Fewer hours ripples all the way down to paying rent and feeding kids.
Well played.
I dont understand why Whole Foods is being singled out? They had protections in place several weeks before Harris Teeter and Food Lion. I cant believe those stores do not have employees who have rested positive. Were other chains contacted? This makes it look as though you are targeting one company when others are even worse on safety