FEATURE
LABOR PAINS
The pandemic has created a challenging, competitive labor market for c-store retailers By Renée M. Covino
IN RECENT MONTHS,
many convenience store chains have gone on hiring sprees, seeking to bring on thousands of new employees at a time, to keep up with the demands of being an essential business during the coronavirus pandemic. But they have been met with a particularly challenging labor market. “The current labor market for convenience stores during the pandemic has been challenging and difficult as convenience retailers compete for the same talent as retailers such as Target, Walmart and Amazon, which have also seen a surge in business and have also sought to hire more people for their stores, as well as fulfillment centers,” said Carlos Castelán,
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managing director of The Navio Group, a business management consulting firm that advises retailers on how to improve their workplace and workforce. Because c-store roles are local in nature, there is not the ability to hire remote workers and have access to the larger national pool of workers, Castelán continued. “Add in the complications of coronavirus and that some workers may choose not to work in these sorts of closecontact jobs until the pandemic is over, and you have an extremely competitive hiring market for in-store jobs.” Overall, the labor market has been on “a wild rollercoaster ride” since March 2020, according to Don Stuart, managing partner at Wilton, Conn.-based Cadent Consulting Group. Unemployment skyrocketed from a 50-year low to a double-digit peak before descending to the 6- to 7-percent range. “This is still about twice