For Anchorage grocers, long days, shortages and tough choices during the coronavirus crisis

The people who own and manage grocery stores are facing weighty decisions about how to operate their essential businesses during the pandemic.

We talked to three managers of locally owned grocery outlets in the Anchorage area about what the last month of their lives has been like: Canceled orders, handmade masks, employee bonuses, big sales in liquor and ammo and grateful customers.

“We’re trying to please everybody,” said Jeff Forster, manager of the Three Bears in Chugiak, where you can buy everything from lettuce to fishing tackle. “And we’re trying to run a business and take care of customers and take care of employees. It’s hard to find the balance.”

Alaska’s grocery workers union, which represents employees at Carrs, Fred Meyer and other unionized grocery stores, says some chains have taken admirable steps to try to ensure workers get personal protective gear such as masks. Kroger, which owns Fred Meyer, appealed to Congress to get workers classified as first responders during the coronavirus crisis.

Carrs, owned by Idaho-based Albertsons, Fred Meyer and Costco did not respond to requests for permission to interview store managers or workers.

One frontline worker feeling the stress is Annie Conary, who works in the vitamins section at Natural Pantry in Anchorage.

She’s been serving customers wearing a mask and gloves, but some still mosey within 6 feet of her. Stock has been inconsistent, and some items, like sanitizers and immunity supplements, are sold out.

“I want to be there for them,” she said. “But I have to distance myself.”

‘I could see it coming’

Red Apple Grocery in Mountain View is locally famous for selling a dizzying array of foods mirroring the tastes of its neighborhood, one of the most ethnically diverse in the nation. At Red Apple, you can put canned mutton flaps, galangal, banana flowers and Kraft macaroni and cheese in the same shopping cart.

Ron Petersen is the part-owner and manager of Red Apple, one of the city’s few independently owned, full-fledged grocery stores. He finds himself in a position nobody has been in until recently: the person in charge of an essential, high-traffic public place during a pandemic.

Daily, he balances the needs of his clientele and his workers. So far, none of his employees has gotten sick. But every day, hundreds of people walk into his store -- some wearing masks and gloves, some without either.

Petersen said he traveled to Washington state in February to visit his mom in an assisted-living facility. Seattle already had coronavirus cases, and health-screening measures were being taken at the home where his mom was living

“I could see it coming,” he said.

First, he started handing out rubber gloves to his employees. Then he went to Home Depot and bought sheets of plexiglass to create barriers between the cashiers and the customers. Then he shortened store hours, closing at 10 p.m. instead of midnight to allow for two extra hours of wiping down surfaces -- from the meat cooler to the carts -- with bleach and water.

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At one point early on, when panic buying was widespread, 125 people lined up outside the store hoping to buy bags of rice, a staple for many customers, Petersen said.

He had an employee’s family member make face masks to offer to his staff. He gave everyone a $2 wage increase and has promised a bonus for those who stick with Red Apple throughout the pandemic. He’s been on rumor-quashing patrol -- one customer told him he’d heard grocery stores had to close by 5 p.m., which was not true.

Some of his newest measures include limiting the number of customers inside the store at the same time. Just one member of a family is allowed in at once, a policy most people seem willing to observe. A few times, he’s had to argue with people who want to come in with extra people. But for the most part, customers have been grateful and kind, he said.

‘It’s for self-sufficiency’

The owners of Natural Pantry have been preparing for 40 years for the kind of bulk buying happening everywhere right now. Vikki and Rick Solberg opened their natural-foods store as young newlywed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The church encourages food storage as a practice, said Vikki Solberg.

“It’s for self-sufficiency, so you can have as much control over your life as you can,” she said. “So you don’t panic. If you don’t have milk, you have powdered milk. You don’t have bread, but you have wheat you can grind. It’s a very sound teaching.”

She remembers a formative experience after the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage when she went to the grocery store and witnessed two women physically fighting over a loaf of bread.

Natural Pantry has always sold bulk foods, for Alaskans who wanted a 50-pound bag of flour or a year’s worth of rice at home, just in case.

But in March, as anxiety about the virus mounted, people started sweeping Natural Pantry’s shelves clean, even of the more expensive organic brands the store typically carries.

“When the reality of this started to hit, people panicked,” said Solberg.

Rice and toilet paper went first. Staples like beans. Then, anything used to make bread.

“My suppliers have told me they won’t have any yeast for weeks,” she said.

Trying to get caught up with back-ordered products has been spotty. One big order of merchandise was deemed too big and canceled.

“I said whoa, whoa, whoa -- that was really frightening for me,” Solberg said.

She too has worried about her employees. The configuration of their checkstands doesn’t allow for the plexiglass shields many grocery stores have erected, but she’s had fabric masks made for cashiers. Three of Solberg’s sons also work at the store. They’ve asked why she and her husband, who are 67 and 70 respectively, are still coming in to work.

The store closes earlier so workers can spend more time sanitizing. They’ve had to limit customers to one bag of beans and one bag of rice at a time.

It has been interesting to watch Alaskans pick up some of the food-storage tenets that Solberg and her family have been practicing for years, she said.

“I’m grateful we have the store. I’m grateful we have wonderful regular customers. I just keep hoping we can keep supplying everything people need or want.”

‘I don’t sleep’

At Three Bears in Chugiak, the last month has been a nonstop sprint.

“I don’t sleep,” said Forster, the Chugiak store manager. Three Bears, a family-owned grocery and warehouse chain, has 12 locations in Alaska and one in Montana.

At the beginning, people were “buying (products) as we tried to stock it on the shelves,” Forster said.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected every aspect of the business, from manufacturers no longer making less popular iterations of their product to staffing the store.

“My crew has really worked through this,” he said. “It has been really incredible.”

Three Bears stores have adopted the standard social distancing protocols -- plexiglass barriers, signs encouraging customers to stay 6 feet apart, employees wearing masks, heavy sanitizing of everything from freezer doors to ATMs.

“We’re really trying to not only take care of our customers but to take care of our employees,” he said.

The store’s sales have about doubled over the last month. Among the biggest sellers: the usual staples along with guns, ammunition and liquor. Some areas of the store, like the deli, are quieter.

Another bright spot: customers who say thank you.

“All day long,” said Forster. “They go out of their way. They’ve brought pizza. They show gratitude.”

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