Corona Virus. The 2020 pandemic that has people clearing the shelves every day. From toilet paper to disinfectant items to just food in general. The shelves are emptying faster than the stores can stock them.
I work at BJ’s Wholesale Club (think Costco or Sam’s Club), I have for just shy of a year and I have NEVER seen anything like this ever. Not even in the twelve years that I worked at Wegman’s did I ever see anything like this. Not even during the holiday time. This is like Black Friday, Christmas and Thanksgiving combined.
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been asked in the last week or so if we have toilet paper or other items and when we would be getting them back in. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked about toilet paper, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and more, I wouldn’t have to work for a few months, at least.
There are lines to get in the store, at least thirty minutes before the doors open at 9:00 am. And as soon as the opening manager opens the front door it’s a mad dash to the toilet paper aisle (if we got any in) and typically it’s gone in less than half an hour. Water, meat, and other items (food and not food) are also gone early in the day.
There are limits on so many things – water and toilet paper being the worst of them. I have had to tell so many customers that they can only purchase TWO waters per day, or two of other items. I’ve gotten annoyed looks and comments from so many people.
I think Thursday and Friday were the worst of it, starting back Wednesday, March 11th when they started limiting things. The lines were non-stop from open til close, back to near the frozen aisles at the worst of it. Between the self-check and cashier-manned registers it was constantly non-stop.
I like when it’s busy, it goes by faster (you hardly look at the clock), but sometimes it’s too busy. I worked from 10:00 am – 9:00 pm (probably more like 9:30 pm by the time the last customer was done). On both of those days the only time I didn’t have a customer was when I was on break or on lunch. Saturday and Sunday were busy when we opened and then sporadic throughout the day due to the fact that we were running out of things.
Monday and Tuesday were more of the same. Tuesday was probably the slowest day since the 11th. Part of that was in part to the fact that we were out of a lot of things.
In about 8 days (March 11th until yesterday, March 18th) I worked about 77 hours between Cashier, Self Check, and Front Door. From Thursday until Saturday I barely slept. I was so over tired that I was just exhausted, which led to being very tired on Sunday to the point where I finished work, got some groceries (more on that soon), went home, ate dinner and passed out at 8:30 pm. I woke up Monday morning at 8:00 am. Eleven hours and fourteen minutes of sleep. I never get that much sleep unless I take my Vertigo medicine.
Sunday was the first time that I’d been around the store in a few days. I knew we were out of things; I just didn’t know how bare the shelves were. There were whole sections that were empty. The photos on here are from my phone – I took all of the photos of the empty aisles, empty coolers. The amount of food people are buying, the amount of anything people are buying, just confounds me. I don’t understand why people are buying so much water – there hasn’t been any reports about the water being contaminated. You can drink tap or filtered water. Hell, if you’re that worried, boil your water. I don’t understand why people are buying so much toilet paper. If we are in our houses for two weeks and you go through the amount of toilet paper people are buying at my job (we sell in bulk) you have a problem and it’s not Corona Virus, which was far as I’m aware is not a stomach virus.
Wednesday, the last day before my six day “Stay-Cation”. We opened fifteen minutes early, and it’s the first time I’ve opened since this whole thing started. Within the first ten minutes of the store being opened (after the Store Manager went out and talked to everyone) about 100 people came into the store. We didn’t have toilet paper, or sanitizer and wipes, but we did have water, meat, produce and some dairy.
The search for things continues. I was at the front door yesterday, so I was the first and last person everyone interacted with. Everyone seemed to be in a pleasant enough mood. I didn’t have to cash anyone out, I didn’t have to lift cases of water or tell people they were limited to certain amounts of certain items. I did get asked so many times when we were going to restock everything (facepalm) and when we were going to get certain items back in. It’s hard to restock everything when as soon as things are put on the shelves, they’re gone again. Honestly it'll be months before stores are completely restocked with everything.
I’m so glad to have a six day break from all of the insanity. I don’t plan on going to the store, or my work until next Wednesday. I was supposed to be going to Boston tomorrow. To meet Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hayden Christensen, and Ewan McGregor. To see friends I haven’t seen since last year. To see my favorite cities in Massachusetts. Due to Corona Virus I was forced to cancel my vacation, but I still have the time off, and I plan on taking all those days off to rest, and reboot.
Coming next time? My favorite places in Massachusetts. A virtual tour of my favorite cities that I was supposed to be visiting this weekend.
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