Essential Workers at Grocery Store Keep Shopper Spirits High While Also Keeping Them Fed

Inside Edition was there as frontline heroes at a Los Angeles-area grocery store worked to keep people’s spirits high while keeping food on people’s tables during the coronavirus pandemic. Employees at Sprouts Supermarket wear shirts with uplifting slogans like “People-powered, purpose-driven.”

“You are out there worried, is your family worried?” Inside Edition correspondent Jim Moret asked store employee Elsa Ortega. 

“Yes my family is worried, but I update them on what we do to stay safe,” Ortega said. Ortega’s customers depend on her now more than ever, she said. “It feels great knowing I am a part of their lives,” she continued. “We had a customer who came in here and bought $300 worth of Sprout gift cards they donated to employees."

Ortega dons a mask and gloves as soon as she walks into work, where she immediately sanitizes her bagging station. Like Ortega, employees there constantly clean surfaces in the store. 

Plastic shields have also been installed at each checkout stand to prevent people from getting too close to one another. 

“Do you have newfound pride?” Moret asked Cindy Chikahisa, vice president of operations. 

Chikahisa was emotional as she answered. 

“I do."

RELATED STORIES