GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kristen Miles is a professional shopper with Shipt, a delivery service used by Meijer, but she has never seen anything like this.
"People are panicking and their shopping habits show that...our shoppers are going and finding empty shelves of things people need and use everyday," says Miles.
Long lines at grocery stores across West Michigan has forced Shipt, which is owned by Target Corp., to make some major changes.
"We need to hire quite a few more shoppers, we're looking at 2,000 more shoppers in the Grand Rapids area because we have such high demand," says Miles.
The coronavirus pandemic has some people too scared to shop and some of the current Shipt shoppers must stay home because they are part of a vulnerable population.
Shipt says they are taking extra precautions to protect their workforce.
"We are hand sanitizing everyday in between every order, I'm washing my hands in the bathroom between every order, we're wiping down shopping carts," says Miles.
They've also had to adjust to recent changes like Meijer no longer being open 24 hours.
"We've had to make changes in our schedules, we had some shoppers working 3rd shift, shoppers that shopped 2nd shift and I'm an early morning person," says Miles.
But if you can't use a shopping service, Miles says patience is key at the stores right now.
"The store workers are working extra hard to stock those shelves as fast as they can but some things are going to be out of stock," says Miles.
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