In general, grocery stores have been ramping up their efforts at disease control. They’ve had workers wash their hands more frequently, use hand sanitizer, and clean surfaces more aggressively. A few have added sneeze guards at registers. Some have also offered workers who get the coronavirus paid sick leave, at least through April. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Kroger, Stop & Shop, and Target all offer two weeks of paid time off for workers who test positive for COVID-19 or are placed into quarantine.

However, some employees say these policies fall short of the protections workers truly need. At the same time Whole Foods announced it would provide paid sick leave, the company also made headlines for suggesting that hourly employees donate their paid time off to one another. Like some other stores, Whole Foods granted hourly employees an extra $2 an hour through April, but some told me this was too small of a pay bump for risking their health. And it can be difficult seeing reports of white-collar employees having the luxury of staying home with pay indefinitely.

Read: Who will run the soup kitchens?

I spoke with one Whole Foods employee in Atlanta, who is in quarantine after coming down with a sore throat and fever. (He also requested anonymity to avoid retaliation for speaking with the press.) Though he thinks he will get paid for all 14 days doctors advised him to stay home, he still feels guilty for not being able to help out. The culture of retail, he says, is “if you feel good enough to work, you need to work. We all know what it feels like when there’s not enough people there.” He said his store has been so busy and understaffed that it’s been hard to make time to clean and sanitize. The last day he worked, about a week ago, he was able to wash his hands only a few times during his shift.

In an email response to employees’ accounts, Whole Foods said, “We have implemented enhanced daily cleanliness and sanitation protocols across all stores and facilities,” and “we are operating under social distancing guidelines in our stores and facilities, ensuring that interaction among team members and between team members and customers can happen at a safe distance.” The company also pointed out that it is doubling workers’ overtime pay through May 3.

Though grocery stores might be able to do more to protect staffers, they are never going to be 100 percent safe from the coronavirus. People can transmit the virus while they’re largely asymptomatic. There simply isn’t six feet of space between everyone in the average crowded market, and the infections popping up in grocery stores prove it. But grocery shopping is so comforting and instinctual, people don’t always realize just how much they’re exposing the grocery workers they rely on. Before he went into quarantine, the Atlanta Whole Foods worker I interviewed overheard a customer walk into the store and say into his phone, “I’m pretty sure I have it; I’m going to the doctor now. I just have to stop at Whole Foods first.”

Related Podcast

Listen to Olga Khazan discuss this story on an episode of Social Distance, The Atlantic’s podcast about living through a pandemic:

Subscribe to Social Distance on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (How to Listen)