It might not just be Maine, but I haven't left the state in a couple of years...

 

I think it's Covid related, but I don't know. It's just that the world is trying to get back to normal, but it's far, far from what it was pre-pandemic. Thanks to a horrible shortage of workers, life simply isn't the same. It's harder. Much harder. It's harder to find things. And we're not talking hard to find things, like a unicorn. We're talking about finding cream cheese. Or cat food. Or Goldfish crackers. Or you name it - it's in much, much shorter supply. But the thing that is changing everything is the lack of employees. How is it that there are so few workers that the Hannaford on Forest Avenue had lines at every register and self-checkout that were at least 20-30 people deep?

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I've been to the Hannaford on Forest Avenue through storms, holidays, stormy holidays and I have NEVER seen anything like it. This picture only shows half the line. It stretched the entire aisle!

To the employees who do come in - thank you! I can only imagine how hard it is to do what you do for people who are frustrated. Please know that most of us are so grateful.

And that brings me to the change that I've seen that scares me the most. The stress. The stress on the supply chain, the stress of simple tasks like grocery shopping, the stress of working - it's stressing people out! We are exhausted.

We are exhausted from fighting. We fought Covid, and now we are fighting the lingering effects of Covid in our workforce. Everyone I speak with is tired because everything is just plain harder. We are just trying to do what we've always done and we just can't do it. It's just not that simple or easy anymore - and to be honest, it wasn't that simple or easy in the first place.

Is it just me, or do you feel this too? Is life weird for you too?

 

 

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