Dot Foods banks on post-COVID rural appeal, pays employees to move

MOUNT STERLING, Ill. (AP) — Dot Foods had a problem. In early 2020, COVID-19 put the brakes on six decades of nearly constant hiring. When the pandemic eased and business buzzed again last spring, the company found that prospective employees, less willing to work, or at least having warmed up to doing it from home, weren’t lining up like they used to.

You can’t work from your living room in your pajamas — Dot’s jobs are in-person, physical warehouse labor, packing pallets with the specialized orders the company’s customers need.

But the giant food redistributor, located in Mount Sterling, population 1,900, is piggy-backing on the post-pandemic phenomenon which is luring parts of the workforce from cities. But with its traditionally local employment pool more reluctant, Dot is looking farther and wider.

It’s dangling $1,500 to $3,000 in moving expenses if you pack up for western Illinois and a competitive wage at a company that boasts it’s never laid off an employee in its 61 years.

Dot Foods, still run by the family of founders Robert “RT” and Dorothy Tracy, is following a portion of the playbook for what some researchers call a “Zoom town” phenomenon, driven largely, but not entirely, by work-at-home conditions forced by the pandemic.

Urban centers no longer dictate the geography of a job and some employees are trading in endless commutes and “Got a minute?” interruptions for more time at home and a slower, smaller lifestyle.

“There had already been population dispersal even before the pandemic, related to the economic uptick after the Great Recession,” said William Frey, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. “But pandemic-related migration could open the door to new growth opportunities in smaller communities.”

To qualify for reimbursement, prospective Dot employees must live at least 75 miles away from Mount Sterling and move within 45 miles of the city. A move of up to 500 miles warrants a $1,500 check, an amount that increases incrementally to $3,000 for anyone coming from more than 2,000 miles.

Since it launched in May, 40 of Dot’s 248 hires qualified for moving reimbursement. But there are still 150 openings, a combination of a reignited economy and an admittedly high warehouse turnover.

The physical labor isn’t for everyone, said Ashley Ferguson, director of personnel for Dot’s Illinois warehouse. Others find jobs with shorter commutes.

“Referrals have always been our No. 1 source of candidates, but this year we were hiring more,” Ferguson said. “We decided we need to have more strategies and different approaches to help people that might want to move to this area.”

It’s far from a unique idea.

Cities themselves have joined in the hunt in numbers that prompted pioneers of Angie’s List last winter to launch MakeMyMove.com, which collates U.S. locations offering relocation incentives. How about $20,000 from Morgantown, West Virginia, $15,660 from Augusta, Maine or $12,500 to call Newton, Iowa home?

“Not since the Industrial Revolution have we seen such a massive reorganization of how people think about place,” said Evan Hock, MakeMyMove co-founder and chief operating officer.

Instead of following jobs to cities, working remotely means working from anywhere, Hock said. But money drives migration, as well.

Respondents to a MakeMyMove survey last summer indicated that their reluctance to pull up roots — “Moving is expensive and it’s risky,” Hock said — withers when there’s a monetary incentive.

“The same mechanics that are driving remote workers to make moves would apply to any type of worker,” Hock said. “A lot of people are moving to find someplace that’s more affordable, some people are wanting to move closer to amenities like the outdoors or to have a lot of land.”

For Aimie Logan, it was a combination of things that brought her to Mount Sterling last spring, but one thing is certain: She never dreamed of living outside Chicago, where she’d spent her entire adult life. Then, the pandemic forced the company where she worked to cut her hours.

Logan, 37, lured west by a friend in the area and what looked like Dot’s friendly work environment, decided she was ready for a change. And she got it.

“I live in an old farmhouse with a big yard and neighbors, you have to drive to them, but it’s great. A welcoming town,” said Logan during a break from one of her four weekly 10-hour shifts in the frozen-foods warehouse.

“I never thought I would move out of the city. I liked the convenience. I liked the fast pace. Now I have a Dollar General and a gas station. I wouldn’t trade it for the world where I’m at now.”

Mount Sterling Realtors can attest. Courtney Newton has had inquiries in recent months from Arizona, California and Florida.

“The majority of the ones that I work with do not want to live in a busier area,” Newton said. “They want to live here because they like the peace and quiet, more rural theme, where everybody kind of knows everybody.”