Lost in the supermarket

My heart sank this morning when our on-line shopping arrived. “Unfortunately, we have some unavailable items,” said the delivery man. What a relief when he said it was only hand wash that was unavailable! If it had been red wine or beer, I’d have joined the hordes in our local Sainsbury’s! Disappointingly, due to my inability to shop on-line and actually remember everything, I had to go there anyway. It felt a little weird.

Arriving in-store, I managed to attract some attention by having a coughing fit. I was immediately aware of people looking at me in horror – I am used to this feeling, by the way – and fearing the worst. Anyway, the atmosphere was a little tense. As Murray Walker once put it, “You could cut the tension with a cricket stump.”

I didn’t need very much, which was just as well since all the toilet rolls and packs of pasta had all gone and you literally couldn’t get into the aisle as people loaded their trolleys with eggs, but what struck me was how quiet everyone was. Although there was a very gentle hubbub of conversation, most people seemed to just want to get into the store and out again.

There were regular tannoy announcements asking all staff to help at the check outs because the trolley queues were enormous. A staff member told me it felt like Christmas, but without the bog rolls.

The panic buying is not just bonkers, but utterly pointless, too. Covid-19 isn’t just going to hang around for a few weeks. It’s likely to stretch into the summer and probably beyond that. Many doctors feel it’s the spikes we will get next winter that will be the most worrying of all. And anyway, supermarkets, one way or another, will be the last places to close down.

When we’ve got enough bog rolls, eggs, flour, pasta, biscuits and baked beans, I suspect we will all calm down a bit and concentrate not just on our own lives, but looking after others, too, who may need a little help to get through this.

Covid-19 will change our lives forever. We will remember it like our parents and grandparents remember the blitz in World War 2. Assuming we all make it.