Gallery • 7 Photos

Josh Harrington

Few gatorade left with a sign limiting purchase to 2 per customer.

In the past few weeks, the general public has been flocking to grocery stores across the country in search of staple goods and to prepare for the shelter-in-place which is now set in place. Students both young and old are also now learning online. Many of the working class are either laid off or working from home and, in return, are consuming more goods from grocery stores and not going out to eat or do other activities.

The flip side of this is that grocery stores cannot keep up with the sudden, extreme increase in demand. Shelves are empty. Things you take for granted are going to leave you waiting for the next shipment to come in, and even then you hope you get there before other people buy it all and leave you waiting for the next one, hoping you are luckier that time.

As a grocery store employee, we sympathize with these people. We are doing the best we can, working around the clock to get the goods out on the shelf and into people’s hands. Where six pallets in one shipment seemed like a lot before this all started, we now get closer to 20 pallets per shipment because the shelves are empty. 

A lot of citizens have switched to ordering online, where you pay by credit card and an employee shops your list for you. This is great because it reduces the amount of interaction we must have with one another, and therefore reduces the risk of transmission of the corona virus plaguing our society for the foreseeable future. The not so great part is having to explain to each and every customer why they did not receive half their order. 

While things are going to get better as manufacturers ramp up production and society slows down their consumption (and let’s be fair, panic buying), for now we must learn that this might be the new way of life for a while.

We live in unprecedented times. Just remember, we are all in this together.