Currently the Bay Area is three and a half months into some version of a shelter order that has been extended multiple times from its original two week duration. With COVID-19 cases spiking once again, it’s incumbent to remember the missteps of the beginning.


March 16, 2020, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experiences its largest drop in history at that point. Some Bay Area libraries close while other buildings are repurposed as child care centers; it’s the first day that most Bay Area schools close. This is also the day Mayor London Breed joins five other counties in announcing a shelter in place order for San Francisco to take effect at midnight.

President Emmanuel Macron announces a similar shelter order for the entire country of France the very same day.

Exterior of Breakfast Little, owned by Andrew Perez, Monday July 13, 2020. The business had only been in operation for 14 months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit San Francisco, and Perez was forced to cut down his staff and adapt his way of doing business to stay afloat.Photo: Mabel Jimenez

On that day Andrew Perez, owner of Breakfast Little, a breakfast and brunch cafe in the Mission with a Mexican inspired menu, was having one of the most difficult conversations a small business owner can have.

“It was a little tough, to tell them, you know, you don’t have a job anymore and there’s not really anything that I can do for you,” says Perez. “And this was a hard thing because I just wasn’t prepared for anything like this.”

Just a year and two months after opening his business, Perez had to close Breakfast Little, laying off all six of his employees in the process.

13 days later the number of coronavirus cases surpassed 2,000 in the Bay and 7,000 for the state. Major retailers furlough employees, Instacart workers go on strike for hazard pay, and shelter in place orders are about to be extended. And this is when Perez is forced to re-open on his own.

“It’s not that I wanted to open up,” he says. “I had to open up. I was not going to get any sort of rent concession, and so it was like, I have to make rent… There just was no other option.” As Perez set out to modify and run his shop during the increasing severity of the pandemic with little more than mixed messaging as guidance from officials, he looked to other sources for help.

Andrew Perez, owner of Breakfast Little, poses for a portrait inside his business, located on 22nd Street, Monday July 13, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic hit San Francisco just 14 months after Perez opened his business. He was forced to cut down his staff and adapt his way of doing business to stay afloat. Photo: Mabel Jimenez

“This was me having to look at other countries…. Like I said, this was pre-mask, so this was when they said don’t wear masks. So this was kind of like, ‘we [local government] don’t know, so you figure it out, but you’re essential so you can stay open if you want. But stay home also.’ I had to do my own research… what am I willing to risk? Who’s dying in my age group? I had to find that out for myself.”

Perez isn’t alone in his experience.

Kaitlyn and Doug, two employees of a well-known Bay Area grocery chain, agreed to speak with El Tecolote on the condition of anonymity. They expressed misgivings about how their company dealt with safety in the beginning of shelter-in-place.
Grocery stores tend to run understaffed, and this location was no different at the time. During the panic-purchasing phase of the crisis, customers came in droves, forming lines around the building.

It was, as Kaitlyn put it, “a crisis.”

“We couldn’t keep up. So anyone that was there, in any department, they were told to drop what they were doing and ‘let’s get these people out of the store,’” Kaitlyn said.
These two essential workers explain that though store standards and policies have improved, initially when it came to employee safety, there was none.

“I actually was the first one in my store to wear the N95 mask, before the company mandated it,” Doug explained. “I live with some family who really didn’t want to catch this, so they begged me to wear the mask. I was kind of hesitant but I put it on and got a lot of weird looks from customers.”

“Most of the conversations I remember between management and coworkers were mostly things like how to keep the store running,” Doug continued.

“The main concern is I’m going to go in here … and I’m going to bring something home to my family,” said Kaitlyn. “I felt like if it’s this serious, why do you have me working? Why is my life less valuable than the next person?…We didn’t really have the option, if we weren’t comfortable or felt safe, to not work.”

These feelings are echoed by many essential workers, including Perez. “Who cared about the grocery store workers in the beginning?” he said. “There were these huge campaigns thanking them and ‘oh my God they’re our heroes,’ and it’s like no, no they’re not. Heroes get to make a choice.”

“This pandemic is showing more and more the inequalities in this country,” Perez continued. “Who’s getting sick and who’s dying? Who’s being forced to be an essential worker? I don’t have the luxury of working from home… more than half of us can’t work from home. They kind of left the rest of us to fend for ourselves.”

In May, a study by the Bay Area Equity Atlas counted 1.1 million essential workers in the region, accounting for 28 percent of the workforce, and they are predominantly Black, Latinx, Filipinx.

On the other side of that number are those who have the luxury of working from home. It is that side of the workforce that the governor and mayor have catered to from the beginning, when San Francisco, the Bay Area and the State closed.

So when Mayor London Breed said, “your garbage will be picked up… grocery stores and pharmacies and banks and gas stations will remain open, restaurants will remain open for take-out,” she is speaking about the nearly one-third of workers spanning those industries, but she’s not speaking to them.

It is a failure in our system, to leave everybody at risk,” says Perez.

Now, in light of California’s stubborn push to re-open, some essential workers are feeling more expendible than exceptional. If the state is entering a second wave of infections, how will this time be any different from March?

In a recent interview with NPR, Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked about his efforts to persuade individuals about their societal responsibility. “It’s such an important problem and people’s lives depend on it,” he said. “That’s how you judge society, how do you care for your vulnerable?”

How might the Bay Area, and the state for that matter, care for its vulnerable, for the one-third?

Perhaps ensuring that free daycare services are available for the children of grocery workers is as essential as for doctors and nurses.

It’s an oldie but a goodie; maybe the pay rate for these essential workers should reflect the sacrifice being made for the survival of their communities.

A policy could be adopted similar to France’s “right to withdraw,” giving employees the right to walk off the job without punishment or docked wages if they believe their safety or health are at risk.

It could also be as simple as listening to workers themselves and responding to their needs.

“I understand I have a job, and people need groceries and stuff… But if it’s this dangerous, maybe we should think of a better protocol,” said Kaitlyn. “Maybe nobody comes in the store… we do their shopping for them.”

As Perez puts it, “I am thankful for the work people have done, but it’s not out of choice, it’s out of necessity.”