Retail Workers Research Articles

Frequency of Workplace Controls and Associations With Safety Perceptions Among a National Sample of US Food Retail Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Explore workplace control frequencies and factors associated with US food retail workers' safety perceptions during COVID-19. An online, cross-sectional survey captured working conditions and safety perceptions among a large, national sample of US food retail workers from July to October 2020. Overall, 40.3% reported feeling "not so" or "not protected" by COVID-19 controls. Administrative controls were more commonly reported (56.8% reported ≥5 controls) than engineering (19.5% reported ≥3). Fomite-related controls were more common than those reducing interpersonal contact. After adjustment, organizational safety climate (prevalence ratio (PR): 1.53, 95% CI: 1.24, 1.89), and perceived strict prevention measure enforcement (PR: 0.60, 95% CI: 0.46, 0.78) were associated with safety perceptions. Many workers do not feel well-protected by COVID-19 controls. Safety climate and control enforcement are associated with workers' COVID-19 safety perceptions.

COVID-19 and mental health of food retail, food service, and hospitality workers

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a detrimental toll on the lives of individuals globally. In addition to the direct effect (e.g., being infected with the virus), this pandemic has negatively ravaged many industries, particularly food retail, food services, and hospitality. Given the novelty of the disease, the true impact of COVID-19 remains to be determined. Because of the nature of their work, and the characteristics of the workers, individuals in the food retail, food service, and hospitality industries are a group whose vulnerability is at its most fragile state during this pandemic. Through this qualitative study, we explored workers’ perspectives on the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health and coping, including screening for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder symptoms. Twenty-seven individual interviews were conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Four key themes emerged: being infected and infecting others, the unknown, isolation, and work and customer demands. Considering the many uncertainties of COVID-19, workers in these three industries were experiencing heightened levels of mental distress because of where they worked and the already existing disparities they faced on a daily basis before the pandemic started. Yet they remained hopeful for a better future. More studies are needed to fully understand the magnitude, short-term, and long-term effects of COVID-19. Based on this study’s findings, programs are critically needed to promote positive coping behaviors among at-risk and distressed workers. Recommendations for employers, occupational health and safety professionals, and policy stakeholders to further support these service workers are discussed.

Unhealthy Food and Psychological Stress: The Association between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Perceived Stress in Working-Class Young Adults.

Background: Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made from food extracts or constituents with little or no intact food and often containing additives that confer hyper-palatability. The consumption of these products increases the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. Stressed people may engage in unhealthy eating as a way to cope. This study aimed to verify whether ultra-processed food consumption was associated with perceived stress levels in industrial and retail workers from Vitoria da Conquista, Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out between July 2017 and August 2018. During the study period, 1270 participants completed a survey administered by an interviewer. Stress levels were assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale. Information regarding weekly ultra-processed food consumption was collected. Ultra-processed foods were classified into four groups: sugary drinks; sugary foods; fast foods; and canned foods, frozen foods, or processed meat. The Student’s t-test or one-way analysis of variance was used to assess the differences in stress levels and ultra-processed food consumption. Ordinal regression was used to determine the association between the degrees of stress and ultra-processed food consumption levels. Results: Factors such as a young age, being unmarried, smoking, high-risk alcohol consumption, negative health perception, and high perceived stress level indicated higher rates of ultra-processed food consumption. Ordinal regression analysis showed that high stress levels were associated with increased odds of higher ultra-processed food consumption (odds ratio: 1.94; 95% CI: 1.54–2.45). Conclusions: These findings could help identify appropriate target areas for interventions aimed at mental health promotion and healthier food consumption.

Retail worker politics, race and consumption in South Africa: Shelved in the service economy

Retail worker politics, race and consumption in South Africa: Shelved in the service economy

Cannabis Retail Staff (“Budtenders”) Attitudes Towards Cannabis Effects on Health and Experiences Interacting with Consumers – Washington State, USA

ABSTRACT Cannabis legalization in Washington State has increased the availability, consumption, and potency of cannabis products for adults. Public health education promoting safe use for adult consumers has lagged behind these trends. This study assesses the potential of cannabis retail workers (budtenders) to engage in responsible use education with adult consumers at point of sale. Focus groups explored how budtenders perceive their professional role, including educating consumers about cannabis over intoxication, storage, and risks of use before driving and during pregnancy. Transcripts were analyzed to develop a coding scheme, which was then applied with an iterative review by the research team. Budtenders identified three main professional roles: creating a good experience for customers; being compliant with the state law and regulations, and educating customers on products. Budtenders did not believe their job involved discussing use during pregnancy or while driving or safe storage. They prioritized customers’ autonomy over education on these topics, and they did not necessarily consider these behaviors to be harmful. Budtenders are committed to keeping minors outside stores and educating consumers on how to avoid over intoxication and exposure to cannabis contaminants. Future research could build on this to develop point-of-sale education to reduce cannabis use risks.

The associations of working hour characteristics with short sickness absence among part- and full-time retail workers.

Objective:This study aimed to determine the associations of working hour characteristics with short (1–3 days) sickness absence (SA) among retail workers.Methods:As part of “RetailHours-project”, 4046 employees of 338 Finnish retail stores were included. Registry-based data on working hour characteristics and short SA were utilized. A case-crossover design was used and the odds ratios (OR) were controlled for the clustering effect and working hour characteristics.Results:There were strong dose–response relationships between percent of short (<11 hours) shift intervals and short SA among part- and full-time workers, men and women, and younger and older workers. Compared to workers without short shift intervals, the risk of SA was 1.47 times [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29–1.68] higher among workers who had short shift intervals <10% of work times, 2.39 times (95% CI 2.03–2.82) higher among workers who had 10–25% of work times, and 4.03 times (CI 2.34–6.93) higher among workers who had short shift intervals >25% of work times. Weekly working hours >40 hours were associated with SA among part-time workers [odds ratio (OR) 2.22, CI 1.65–2.98], women (OR 1.62, CI 1.27–2.07) and among workers <30 years of age (OR 1.68, CI 1.20–2.35) as well as among workers aged ≥30 years (OR 1.43, CI 1.07–1.92). Furthermore, working mainly night shifts was associated with SA among full-time workers (OR 2.41, 95% CI 0.99–5.86) and women (OR 1.72, CI 1.02–2.89).Conclusions:A short shift interval is an important risk factor for short SA. Improving intervals between shifts and shortening long weekly working hours could reduce the risk of short SA among retail workers.

WITHDRAWN: Modelling the factors of workforce agility in retail stores

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify and categorise the factors that influencing Workforce Agility in Retail Stores (WARS) and to explore the interrelationship among the factors using Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) approach. This paper ranks the factors based on the driving force and the dependence of that factors. Furthermore, this is the first attempt to understand these workforce agility factors in retail stores using the TISM approach. The result indicates that retail work experience is the driving factor of WARS. The results of this study will be useful in examining the factors that lead to the retailers achieve the workforce agility.

Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond

Feeding the City, Pandemic and Beyond

Consumer Redlining and the Reproduction of Inequality at Dollar General

This paper extends our knowledge of consumer redlining by providing empirical evidence documenting its occurrence at Dollar General stores while also providing an explanation as to why it occurs in the first place. My data was primarily collected during six months of fieldwork working as a low-wage sales associate. It was also supplemented by additional participant observation at the eighteen other Dollar General stores in my fieldsite’s district and fifty in-depth interviews with coworkers and employees. My findings revealed significant disparities in store quality and customer service between the store locations I examined. Of the nineteen stores in the district, three standout stores emerged as the very worst. Conditions there were dirtier and more hazardous than the rest, with under-stocked shelves, slow customer service, and a contentious atmosphere for those who worked and shopped amidst the squalor. Therefore, I identified these stores as consumer redlined. My findings illustrate how the automated management of Dollar General’s labor supply undermined frontline managers’ authority and workers’ ability to resist precarious scheduling, contributing to the degradation of retail work. While algorithmic labor management standardized employer-driven “flexible” scheduling, the system also resulted in an unequal distribution of payroll hours amongst store locations. I argue that this automated scheduling system functioned to minimize labor cost and maximize profit, exacerbating the degradation of labor and instigating the reproduction of inequality—in this case, by generating consumer redlining. Additionally, my research shows how computer technology can intentionally undermine the power of frontline managers by automatic flexible scheduling, making it difficult to remedy the source of complaints at consumer-redlined stores: systemic understaffing.

EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION EVALUATION BASED ON COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT (COLA) IN RETAIL INDUSTRY BOGOR, INDONESIA

&lt;p&gt;The retail industry is a field that has a high contribution to the Indonesian economy. This research will examine the compensation based on the need for a decent living for retail workers. The purpose of this study is to (1) Analyze and evaluate the fulfillment of compensation (2) Creating a design and compensation strategy based on the requirements of decent living in Bogor. The type of data in this study is primary data (interview and questionnaires) and secondary data obtained from the &lt;em&gt;website&lt;/em&gt; of Bogor, BPS, literature study, and relevant report. The method used is the descriptive analysis, control chart, and Grid ERRC. The results show that according to 60 components of Living Standards/KHL, only 53 items have been fulfilled and the rest (7 items are expected to be reviewed/Omited) and equal to Rp 2.753.000 which are below to Minimum Wage in Bogor. There is a priority in financial compensation and non-financial compensation, which are health benefits, holiday benefits, work accidents, and work incentives and non-financial compensation consists of career systems, work facilities, responsibilities, work status, working conditions. According to the control chart only 38% of the total respondents whose number of the COLA can be fulfilled above the average retail sector worker.&lt;/p&gt;

Self-reported symptoms of mask-associated dry eye: A survey study of 3,605 people

PurposeDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the widespread use of face masks was recommended as a key measure against the spread of SARS-CoV-2. A marked increase in dry eye symptoms among regular mask users was reported, but the prevalence of this condition has not been described in the literature yet. The aim of this observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was to measure self-reported symptoms of mask-associated dry eye in the general population and to identify factors influencing this condition. MethodsAn anonymous online survey was distributed using Google Forms through different social media platforms. ResultsA total of 3,605 surveys were analysed. Of the 2,447 having symptoms, 658 (26.9 %) participants reported their symptoms were exacerbated when wearing a mask, thus 18.3 % of all participants experienced mask-associated dry eye. There was no significant association between perceived mask-associated dry eye and age, refractive correction, and pre-existing ocular discomfort, while a positive association was observed with female sex and retail work. ConclusionsAlthough the results of this survey showed that most people reported no change in ocular symptoms while wearing a face mask, a significant proportion reported an increase in ocular discomfort when wearing a face mask. As face masks are necessary to slow down the spread of COVID-19, it is important not to underestimate all symptoms that could discourage the population from using them. Eye care professionals should verify the presence of clinical signs in all patients complaining about mask-induced eye discomfort, and suggest methods to mitigate this condition.

Doing and Negotiating Transgender on the Front Line: Customer Abuse, Transphobia and Stigma in the Food Retail Sector

Despite growing research on LGBT+ populations, few studies have examined transgender individuals’ specific workplace experiences, whose voice is often subsumed in a wider category. This article presents the story of Kathrine, a female transgender food retail worker, and discusses the abusive, discriminatory and transphobic behaviour of customers, which has received limited attention in the sociology of service work literature. The article reveals the stigmatization of transgender employees by customers, which is expressed through micro-aggressions, such as mis-gendering, mocking and harassing, and is often neglected and/or tolerated by management. Kathrine discusses the coping strategies she utilizes to reduce the negative consequences of the stigma, and to negotiate and protect her gender identity. These include confronting and/or refusing to serve transphobic customers, reflecting her resilience towards discrimination and abuse. The article calls for further research to understand transgender service employees’ experiences and the complexity and diversity of coping strategies used by stigmatized workers.

Indoor air quality in shopping and storage areas.

In retail stores, workers are constantly exposed to new manufactured goods. The issue of the exposure of retail workers to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) should clearly be considered. Therefore, this study provides data regarding VOC concentrations in ten French retail stores. The stores were chosen to represent various products: sports goods, shoes and leather, furniture, car equipment, bazaars, online-sales storage, clothes, books, DIY (do-it-yourself), and household appliances. VOCs and aldehydes were actively sampled on the same day in five to seven locations per building and outdoors. Toluene and formaldehyde were omnipresent with indoor concentrations reaching 252 and 53µg/m3 , respectively. The car equipment store, followed by clothing, shoes, and leather, and DIY stores showed the worst indoor air quality. High concentrations were measured, for example, the maximum α-pinene concentration in the furniture and DIY stores was 364 and 141µg/m3 , respectively, and the heptane concentration in the car equipment store reached 1,316µg/m3 . Two VOCs classified as toxic to reproduction were measured: hexane in the car equipment store and the bazaar, and dimethylformamide in the sports goods store. This study shows some disparities in the indoor concentrations among different locations in the same store, particularly between sales and storage areas.

Toxicological and ecotoxocological characteristics of pesticides important for their sustainable use

Modern concept of reducing the risk of pesticide use is based on the concept of sustainable use of pesticides. The concept of sustainable use of pesticides presents the range of professional rules, acts, skills of the pesticides use with the aim to promote the plant protection with decreased usage of pesticides, providing, whenever it is possible, advantage to non-chemical methods of plant protection. The most important part of sustainable pesticide usage is integrated plant protection. Integrated plant protection implies the application and integration of all available methods of plant protection which prevent the development of population of the harmful organisms above the level of harmfulness, considering that the usage of means for plant protection is at the level which is economically and ecologically justified. Risks for the human health and the environment is decreased or at least reduced to the minimum by the concept of pesticide application according to the integrated plant protection. Pesticides have certain potential to cause damage effect if people and the other organisms are exposed at the certain conditions and amount. Modern toxicology is directed to determine the safe dose, meaning the dose without the harmful effect as well as finding out the way of safe pesticide use. Considering the modern toxicology, two important terms are hazard and risk. Hazard is the intrinsic characteristic of the chemicals to cause the harmful effect at the defined conditions of the exposition. Risk is probability of manifestation of the harmful effect at the certain conditions of the exposition. The harmful effects of pesticides on humans mostly depend on the pesticides’ own toxicity but on the human’s exposure as well. The exposure of people to pesticides can appear at the working place. Farmers can be exposed to pesticides during the work in the open field and protected space, while the significant exposure can appear with workers in the pesticide industry as well as with workers who deal with jobs of deratization and disinsection and with workers in pesticides wholesale and retail. Estimation of the exposure of the agricultural workers is complex. Professional users are mostly exposed but the exposure is episodic. The particular problem is estimation of the exposure of the field workers and their householders as well. Therefore, while estimating the people’s exposure to pesticides in theresidential buildings, the remains of the pesticides in water, food, dust and air in and around the house is considered. Increased amounts of the pesticides in the house dust are related to exposure which depends on the distance between houses and the pesticide-treated fields, exposure in the house due to the fact that one or two householder work in the agriculture and larger use of pesticides in the residential buildings for treating different insects in the house or yard. Pesticides, besides their negative effects on people’s health, can have harmful effect on the environment, meaning that they can contaminate surface and underground water, soil and air, and to have toxic effects onto non-target organisms. There is a large number of documented papers where is proved that use of pesticides has great consequences onto the population of autochthonous wild animals. Integrated plant protection and sustainable use of pesticides cannot be only a declarative determinant. A wide range of steps have to be undertaken to enable their use in practice. Future imposes huge professional challenges related to the use of pesticides. The need to fulfill the different, sometimes even opposite demands is often imposed. On one side it is demanded to provide pesticides efficiency in protection from the harmful organisms and on the other side sustainable use and decreasing the risk for people and environment. Development of the new pesticides with the new ways of action and improved safety profiles and application of the alternative systems of plant production which will be less dependent on the pesticides could reduce the exposure to pesticides and side effects on people. The use of appropriate and well maintained equipment for pesticide use, while taking all protection measures at all stages of pesticides handling, can reduce the exposure to pesticides. Implementing the concept of sustainable use of pesticides is difficult, but for now it is the only promising way to ensure the protection of people, the environment and the production of healthy food.

Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide

AbstractDrawing on a Bourdieuian theoretical framework, this article examines how the urban/rural divide informs the embodiment of customer service work at retail counters in shopping malls in India. Based on an analysis of extensive interviews as well as on‐site observations during 4 years of fieldwork, I document the cross‐class interactions between urban middle‐class customers and rural migrant lower‐class retail workers. I found that rural migrant workers engage in bodywork to embody service work in line with urban cultural “protocols” for customer interactions. Despite their efforts to acquire this valued embodied cultural capital, urban middle‐class customers continuously othered rural migrant workers. The study extends the service work literature on embodiment by pointing to the urban/rural divide in contexts of sustained rural/urban migration, such as India, and more broadly, the Global South. Second, it shows the symbolic violence in customer–worker dynamics reproducing class domination along the urban/rural divide.

The Costs of Store Sales for Retail Workers.

In the context of economic stagnation and recession, retailers face fierce competition and experience enormous pressure to increase their sales. In this study, we focus on the potential costs of higher store sales for retail workers by examining its effect on work engagement. Drawing on work intensification literature and the job demand-resources model, we study how job variety and workload, two job characteristics, mediate the relationship between store sales and engagement. Store revenue data and survey data of 525 sales employees, embedded in 110 stores of a large Dutch retail organization were used, to perform mixed models analyses. The analyses demonstrate that store sales is negatively related to job variety and positively related to workload. In turn, job variety positively affects work engagement, while workload negatively affects work engagement. Based on multi-source, multilevel data it is thus shown that there are negative effects of store sales in retail. More insight is created into the job characteristics that explain the negative link between store sales and engagement. As it is empirically demonstrated that there are indeed costs associated with improved performance in retail, it is crucial that organizations ensure investments in maintaining resourceful work environments.

Association between SARS-CoV-2 infection, exposure risk and mental health among a cohort of essential retail workers in the USA

ObjectivesTo investigate SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) infection and exposure risks among grocery retail workers, and to investigate their mental health state during the pandemic.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in...

Når lærlingen møter arbeidslivets vurderingslogikk: Yrkessosialisering i det norske salgsfaget

The article examines the role of formative assessment to occupational socialisation processes in retail apprenticeship in Norway. The analysis draws upon a qualitative study of managers and apprentices in the Sales Vocational Education and Training (VET). The Norwegian sales trade struggles to gain foothold. The skilled sales assistant constitutes neither an established social category, nor an employee category. Sales VET is directed towards a labour market sector depicted in terms of high turnover, traditionally valuing soft skills and personality over formal credentials. The article aims to extend understandings of apprentices’ subjective accounts of the assessment they are subjected to and coconstructing. Three different assessment practices integrated in the daily work are analysed. First, retail work centres on customer interaction. The feedback the apprentices receive from the customers, as a type of user-evaluation, provides rich and immediate learning resources. Second, the retail apprentices were thrown into tasks from day one, and are thus shown trust and given responsibility. This recognition by gradual access to more complex tasks serves as another type of assessment, implying increased self-confidence and sentiments of commitment. Third, the sales figures of each apprentice were transparently registered and monitored in the computer system of the shop, representing assessment as management control. By deploying the notion of assessment logic, the article argues that one is better equipped to grasp the interplay between learning, assessment, becoming and working in the retail sector. The interactive nature of customeroriented service work implies re-interpretation of the traditional assessment nexus of trainer – apprentice. The findings of the article show that the apprentices ascribed customer evaluation of great importance to their learning and becoming.

‘She just does not fit in here’: Identity, politics of appearance and aesthetic labour in Turkey’s retail landscapes

This study looks into the politics of appearance in the retail sales labour market for women in Turkey and explores how norms of ‘being presentable and fashionable’ prevailing in different retail landscapes map onto intersections of class, status and the fault lines of Turkey’s identity politics. In an attempt to understand how such norms are constructed, this article employs the discussion on aesthetic labour and focuses on the aesthetic labour requirements in large-scale retailers selling or competing with global brands, small-scale retailers and tesettür retailers. The article relies on data derived from participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with saleswomen and employers in different retail landscapes in five cities of Turkey between 2009 and 2012. The study suggests that large-scale retailers and shopping malls require retail workers to convey an appearance and deportment that fits in with globally circulating images of what is taken to be ‘normal’, middle class and fashionable, leading to the exclusion of saleswomen with headscarves as they are perceived to manifest a particularity and deviation from a normalized middle-class identity. On the other hand, in tesettür chain stores competing in the area of global veiling fashion, the headscarf is usually a requirement as a part of the globally relevant, Islamic middle-class image that retail workers are expected to embody. The norms of aesthetic labour in both kinds of large-scale retailers differ sharply from small-scale retailers, where embodying local gendered norms, and the ability to manage relations in local marketplaces surface as the most salient requirements from retail saleswomen.

Distributive Consequences of Risk Privatization: The Case of the Swedish Unemployment Insurance System

AbstractThe public unemployment insurance program in Sweden has retrenched in terms of its benefit generosity in the last three decades. As a response to this trend, in which an ever-smaller proportion of the previous income of unemployed persons is compensated by public unemployment insurance benefit, complementary income insurance schemes provided by unions have expanded rapidly in the last 15 years, currently covering one half of the working population. What does this change mean for people who need income protection upon unemployment and are more likely to find themselves unemployed or underemployed? By analyzing survey-based benefit recipiency data among retail workers who were unemployed in 2014, this article explores the outcomes of the multi-pillarized unemployment benefit provision system in Sweden. While public unemployment insurance benefit does not fully compensate for the income loss for the majority of retail workers, the promise of a complementary income insurance scheme seems to be illusory for many individuals as they repeatedly oscillate between precarious work and benefits, accompanied by the burden of navigating a complex system.