'Everybody seems to be in like a survival mode.' How will you Make the Season Kind for retail workers?

After 29 years working at the Metro grocery store in St. Catharines, Ont., Anne-Marie Stevens says, when it comes to theft, "now it doesn't seem like it matters."

She says "everybody seems to be in like a survival mode."

That includes people working customer service jobs, and she has a message for shoppers and neighbours this season.

"I've seen co-workers's physically assaulted at my job. It can go from physical to verbal and everything in between," Stevens said. She's asking, when you go to the grocery store, or Tim Hortons — anywhere there are retail workers this holiday season — "just be kind."

CBC’s annual Make The Season Kind holiday campaign, in support of Hamilton Food Share, kicked off this week. We're also asking how you might make this season kind for retail store workers, the people whose work makes the season happen?

A 2025 study found that 35 per cent of retail workers surveyed in the United States say they have felt unsafe at work, up from 27 per cent a year ago, with cashiers exposed to more verbal threats from customers than other retail workers.

The study, which surveyed 1,000 workers, said that 63 per cent reported "personally experiencing verbal threats, compared to 50% of sales associates or 53% of store managers."

Kelly Tosato, president of the Ontario-based United Food & Commercial Workers Union local 175 said this time of year "brings added pressure and expectations to working people, especially those on the frontlines dealing with customers and clients.

"These workers are often doing their jobs under the pressure of growing workloads, staffing shortages, unpredictable schedules, new technologies, and the threat of rising incidents of harassment and violence on the job," she said in a Nov. 21 news release.

Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, a not-for-profit organization offering health and safety expertise and resources for Ontario workers and businesses, offers tips on keeping workers safe during the holidays, on their website.

"Higher demands can tire employees physically and emotionally, affecting their ability to stay safe and healthy," the organization said.

For Make the Season Kind, CBC Hamilton is letting people know how they can donate to support others in the city facing food insecurity. Since 2012, as part of the campaign, more than $64 million has been raised for food banks and charities across Canada.

We're also asking these questions:

Please let us know in the form below. We'll share the messages of acts or intentions of kindness in coming weeks.