Letter to the editor: Local stores doing their best

Letter to the Editor:

As of recently, people in our great community have been blasting Harvest Foods on Facebook over the price of one certain type of 24-pack of water. Accusing the store of price gouging, saying they should be ashamed, threatening to report them, yelling at employees over it.

It hurts that people are willing to do this, willing to say these things because I know Harvest Foods and its employees and store manager. I have worked there for almost six years. I am the deli manager and every day I work with the kindest people I have ever met. During this crisis, they show up every day with a smile. They do their very best while watching the shelves get a little emptier, knowing that the next shipment won’t bring the store, the community what it needs.

It breaks their hearts for their families, for their friends, for this town. And still they smile, they say hello, they ask you if you found everything you needed. They stock what they have and clean the shelves. They go above and beyond every day.

They don’t deserve to be belittled by comments on Facebook. They don’t deserve to be screamed at, things thrown at them or in front of them. They don’t deserve the nasty looks, the disrespect because they have to limit the amount of products you can buy or don’t even have the product.

We can’t get what we need, and it is just as frustrating for all of us as it is for you. We have families to provide for as well. And we order, two shipments a week and out of over 1,000 pieces ordered, we receive 383 pieces. That is beyond our control and we are trying to make things fair so everyone can get some of what they need.

So, please, we are doing our very best for all of you, for all of us. We are not taking advantage of anyone. It is up to all of us, together, to face this crisis as a community. And if we can’t, if we turn on each other now, then I am seriously mistaken about the greatness of Thompson Falls, and all of Sanders County.

Sarah Rose Byrnes,

Thompson Falls