Sunday, September 14, 2025

Supermarket seniors among jobless due to coronavirus

Major supermarket chains including Walmart, Soriana and Chedraui have announced that senior citizens who work as baggers will not be permitted to do their jobs while Covid-19 remains a threat to their health.

The decision is a big blow for many seniors who supplement their pensions with the tips they receive from shoppers.

Among those affected are 80-year-old Aniceto Rojano and his 75-year-old wife Inés González, who have been working three to five-hour shifts, six days a week, for the past 10 years in a supermarket in the northern Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero.

“I feel bad; they told us we have to wait 15 days or a month [to see if we can work again],” Rojano told the newspaper Milenio as he burst into tears.

He and his wife, neither of whom were offered any economic support from the supermarket at which they work even though the chains have promised assistance, said that they have felt “useless” since they were told last week that they couldn’t continue working.

“The time passes very quickly [when you’re] working,” said Rojano. “We have to concentrate on our work and separate the products with a lot of care.”

González explained that they use the tips they receive to purchase essentials such as food and medication for her high blood pressure and her husband’s diabetes.

They are not alone in depending on the money they make as supermarket baggers.

Elizeth Altamirano López, a gerontologist and psychologist with the Mexico City Council for Prevention and Eradication of Discrimination, told Milenio that for many seniors, the tips they receive for bagging groceries is “their main source of income.”

Losing their jobs can also take a toll on seniors’ mental health, she said, adding “a lot of them lose their interest in life.”

However, for now, Rojano is remaining optimistic that he and his wife will be able to get back to work sooner rather than later.

“I have a lot of faith in God that we’ll all return to work again,” he said.

Source: Milenio (sp) 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.

Ghouls, ghosts and…Grandma? Mexican perspectives on aging

0
Far from being packed off to live in a home, elderly people in Mexico remain a focal point of family life — and a respected one too.
A soldier records the passage of Armed Forces helicopters during rehearsals for the Military Air Parade marking the 215th anniversary of the start of the Mexican War of Independence

Mexico’s week in review: Market confidence, China tariff hikes and military scandal

0
Other headlines included a move by Peru to declare Mexico's president a persona non grata, a one-year high for the peso and fatal roadway accidents that left over 100 people wounded.
News quiz

The MND News Quiz of the Week: September 13th

1
Trash, tariffs and tourism: Have you been following the news this week?
BETA Version - Powered by Perplexity