Grocery Stores and COVID19: Racing Empty Shelves

May 23, 2022, 3:20:05 PM

An Interview with Jake Wittwer, Store Director of Lee’s Marketplace Foxboro

Jake Wittwer has been the Store Director of Lee’s Marketplace in Foxboro since the store’s opening in 2017. Jake’s journey with Lee’s, however, began his senior year of high school when his family moved to Cache Valley and he got a job as a bagger in the Logan store. Throughout his time with Lee’s, he has been a dairy manager, non-foods manager, grocery manager, and finally Store Director.

I think that I’m a good estimate of what can be,” said Jake, “There’s nothing special about me, anyone can start off in this company and if they’re willing to work hard and they have a good attitude, they can be successful and even run a store one day.”

Store Directors and COVID19

          “Stressful” was Jake’s immediate response when asked about his experience leading the store when the pandemic hit. “I’ve been in the grocery industry for about 20 years at this point, and I’ve never experienced anything like this. We’ve seen little rushes here and there when there’s a winter blizzard around Thanksgiving or whatever it might be. It was crazy to see the store just completely picked apart,” he continued.

          Shelves seemed empty faster than they were filled, and he wondered if it would be possible to get it all back together. Meetings with executives came and estimates of when normalcy in the stores would return grew to six months.

A Resilient Team

          Jake’s challenge didn’t end with keeping product on the shelves, but in leading a team that relied on his guidance in a time of uncertainty.

In all honesty, it made me appreciate my team more than ever. It was kind of an emotional thing seeing just how we are able to rise up against all these challenges we were faced with. I had every single person in every department jumping from department to department helping break down loads and get them to the shelf, take care of what they could. It was really cool to see the team unity. It was really cool, too, that our guests would come in and despite the store being ransacked they would say how much they appreciated us. I remember a guest coming in and telling us how much they appreciated us, and I teared up a little bit because it was an emotional time.”

Two years later, the stores are still heavily impacted by COVID19. From supply chain problems to team members contracting the illness, stores have had to adjust and adapt to these changing circumstances. As Jake said, “It’s definitely made things more challenging, but it’s definitely made us more resilient.”