Dive Brief:

• Stop & Shop will hire more than 5,000 workers to staff its store departments, e-commerce services and distribution centers across five states, according to a press release issued Tuesday. 
• The new positions, which are permanent, span Stop & Shop locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Store departments staffing up include deli, grocery, bakery, produce and its online pickup service. The grocer is also hiring drivers and in-store shoppers for home delivery service.
• The latest hiring spree brings Stop & Shop's total new jobs during the pandemic to more than 10,000 as grocers and retailers look to keep up with booming e-commerce demand and the holiday shopping surge. 

Dive Insight:

In its second major hiring push since Stop & Shop announced 5,000 open positions at the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, the regional grocer is indicating the seriousness of its e-commerce operations. 

In July, the chain said that it would add three additional warerooms and pickup service to at least 50 more locations by the end of 2020 to keep up with the unprecedented spikes in online shopping, which have only continued to climb in 2020’s twilight months as coronavirus infection rates across the country break records. Stop & Shop has also expanded its partnership with third-party delivery service Instacart this year and launched a new e-commerce platform this summer. 

Throughout the pandemic, the supermarket chain has grappled with worker protections. Earlier this year, the grocer penned a joint statement with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) calling for federal and state designation of grocery store workers as "extended first responders" and prioritized testing and emergency child care. 

Stop & Shop established hazard pay for workers this spring and in September agreed with the UFCW to another round of COVID-19 bonuses for 56,000 union workers, making it one of the few grocers to bring back hazard pay since the start of the pandemic. 

In appealing to potential job candidates, Stop & Shop said in the hiring announcement that it has spent more than $121 million on its employees during the pandemic. The grocer offers six weeks of paid parental leave for full-time workers and noted that it will be among the first U.S. pharmacies to administer a COVID-19 vaccine once one is approved and recommended for use by the Food and Drug Administration.