By Sam Shelenberger, Editor in Chief
Businesses from all around the area have been deemed “non-essential” and shut down, while those that have remained open have reduced their hours for cleaning and restocking. Sheetz, however, remains open 24/7, but the company has taken numerous actions to protect its customers, its employees, and its community.
I have been a salesperson at store #337, the newly remodeled one by the “Big I” roundabout in Vernon Township, since October last year. Since school has shut down, I have been working a lot more, which has been odd and sometimes slightly scary. During a typical shift, I interact with dozens of people, touching surfaces many other people have touched. You can never be sure what people have come in contact with. However, a lot of my fears have been dealt with by our company.
Sheetz has removed all self-serve products in the store such as coffee and fountain drinks, and they have placed protective plexiglass at our registers to help minimize contact with customers. On top of this, they have increased the cleaning of the stores so that every hour an employee sanitizes frequent touchpoints in the store.
As for the employees, the company has offered paid leave for those with serious medical conditions. Everyone else who continues working through all of this is receiving an extra $3 an hour. It is definitely comforting to know that the company I work for cares about its employees.
The weirdest part about all of this is that every shift I work it seems like something else has changed so that we can better protect ourselves and everyone else we work with. While the changes in procedures can be hard to juggle while we continue serving the public, we keep in mind that we have to protect everyone who walks through our doors.
From my perspective as an employee, I feel like Sheetz is definitely making a major effort to keep everyone healthy at this difficult time, and it is comforting to know that the company I work for has the community in mind.
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