The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[Kit-Ginevra]

Over the pond we're on rationing of TP,hand gel, bread and for some reason pasta (is everyone making emergency spaghetti on toast?) #
Many of the shops have gone to card payment only and there's quite a few folk around in masks and gloves(most shops have relaxed their no-masks or thing covering your face policy as long as it's a genuine face mask and not a clown/gorilla etc...) Schools are out until September now it seems except for kids whose parents are key workers and the rugby and racing have bit the dust too. Supermarkets have introduced special opening hours for elderly/disabled only to make sure they get their supplies. And all church services have been suspended-weddings too which means Princess Beatrice isn't getting married just yet. Funerals are going ahead but with smaller congregations. The Queen and Prince Philip have been evacuated to Windsor Palace-if one of them keeled over there would be bedlam.
They may be putting stronger restrictions in place in London, but Boris has decided they don't want to stop people travelling unless its absolutely necessary to have to.

[notalwaysright]

US/Canadian border likely to close tomorrow night. This will impact my town like whoa. Truckers still going through, but a weekend without Canadian shoppers? Never experienced it before.

[KuariKaydrith]

My hotel has officially closed down for at least the next two weeks starting tonight at midnight. The spa portion of it closed this morning. I applied for EI as soon as my boss told me we were shutting down and that ROEs would be done up for us all today. We are all expecting to get back to work in a couple of weeks, but we've also been told that there's a chance we'll be out longer, depending a lot on how long this whole thing goes on. The hotel business needs guests and the staff needs to be safe, so it's very much a catch-22 for everybody right now. And as one of the smaller hotels in the city, it's no surprise that we're the first to close. I expect many of the others to either completely shut down, or operated on a much diminished capacity - one of the big hotels here has already closed down the top half of their building to guests, keeping all their guests on the first handful of floors to make it easy on housekeeping staff.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Many hotels and restaurants over here are encouraging people to buy gift vouchers-the business gets the money now when it needs it and when life returns to normal people can celebrate with their stay/meal/whatever then.

[Android Kaeli]

Seems like it quieted down at the Grocery Store since last weekend, but there's still no TP, hand sanitizer, or wipes -- if these come in they are bought as soon as things hit the shelf. Some canned goods, meats, and other such things are starting to be bought up but not at a fast pace as the toilet paper has been going.

For some reason when I went to another Grocery Store location yesterday, the shredded cheese was nearly gone. Grabbed three packages of it, it'll go into the freezer for whenever I decide to make chili again.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Make an impressively fiery chilli and blast those viruses away!

[Android Kaeli]

Make an impressively fiery chilli and blast those viruses away!

Oh I plan to at some point this summer, I've got some leftover jalapeno peppers frozen in my freezer from last years garden and planted some habanero seeds inside for this year. Might also add a bit of extra hot sauce next time I make it. Not as fiery as some people like it, but I'll like the kick to it.

[Bandit]

I'm lucky that I am both semi-retired and live waaaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. (nearest full-time neighbour is at least 5 miles away), so I'm already pretty much self-isolated.

Did the grocery shopping the other day before their supply truck came and was kinda shocked. No bread, no paper products, very little pasta, soups, or canned meat, and lots of signs saying "Limit 2 per customer".

That said, I wouldn't be surprised to get a call at some point in the chaos from the old job as I'm one of two people who can do it - I cover for my replacement when he goes on holidays - and it's something that can't be stopped as it's life-safety critical.

Only trouble would be that it's in a city 8 hours away, and I'd have no idea if any of the hotels would even be open....

I might have to raise the contracting rate.

B

[Dreamstalker]

I had to go out for a few things and managed to find the last bag of shredded potatoes in the store...I seriously thought I was gonna have to fight someone for it as one of the usual suspects was giving me the stinkeye. It wasn't crowded, but the shelves were ravaged. I did find one lone box of Cheerios on the reduced table; the only thing wrong with it was a dented corner.

Social distancing is getting weird here; I got yelled at by some old bat when I reached in front of her in the drugstore aisle to grab something she was blocking. Sorry but I know what I want, asked you politely to move twice and I'm not waiting ten years for you to decide on mouthwash.

Stores are encouraging people to pay by card; less contact. I already bought a gift card for one of "my" stores that are presently closed; they're paying employees as usual and need the money.

[Smapti]

I came back from my weekend today to find that the management has now imposed a limit of 100 customers in the Store at a time - once we're at that number, noone else can come in until someone leaves. Aside from the occasional entitled grumbler it's been going well, and the reduced number of people inside the Store is spreading out the panic-shoppers to the point that we can actually get some work done.

I had to work the customer service desk today, though, and I was getting pretty sick of people calling the Store constantly to ask what our current hours are or inane questions like "Do you still have food?" or "Will you be getting any more deliveries?" The corporate office went so far as to post on Facebook that the people on the phone don't have access to inventory and you'll have to come to the store yourself to see what we have.

[greek_jester]

Many hotels and restaurants over here are encouraging people to buy gift vouchers-the business gets the money now when it needs it and when life returns to normal people can celebrate with their stay/meal/whatever then.

That is a wonderful idea. Unfortunately none of the places around here that allow dogs sell vouchers, so I can't participate.

[Trixie]

I've been getting a lot of people asking when we get our next truck. I've been telling them when but also that it's no guarantee that it's going to stay that way. I know they only hear the first part but I feel better saying the second part. I love how they think that they're going to get some inside information. They're the reason we had to have cops when we got our last truck unloaded.

[Ghel]

Because of the governor's order to close all restaurants and bars, all our local (small town) restaurants have switch to take-out only. One is even doing delivery that I don't think was before. At least, they weren't advertising it. For the moment, even Betty's is staying open for take-out. I imagine business is down for most of them, but the drive-in place (famous for their rootbeer) is just as busy with take-out only.

[notalwaysright]

I came back from my weekend today to find that the management has now imposed a limit of 100 customers in the Store at a time

Since I now know what company you're talking about, I can say the location here had an employee out front with a counter thing when I went in. Must not have been at max, yet. I have to say, this store has things locked DOWN. And I mean that in a really positive way. They had barricades up in various places, and were funneling everyone into a single line and people at the front were directed to the appropriate register. No more slow-poke with 800 items at the SCO. Nope. Yes, the line was all the way to the back wall of the store, but it was moving. When I got close to the front the employee saw my smaller number of items and I got to go past a bunch of people to the SCO. Anyway, I heard they were closing at midnight, but started turning people away at the door at 11:15. Good for them.

Because of all this, I was able to get nearly everything on my list. They were out of regular salt, and pasta. But I got rice and oatmeal and milk. The eggs were fully stocked, and the meat department, while low, was not empty. They've had toilet paper every time I've gone there. So things aren't as doom and gloom, and I think it's because they weren't afraid to go all scary metal barricade and big bouncer looking employee guarding the doors.

[Monterey Jack]

I've taken to answering questions about "When is the next shipment of T.P. coming in...?" with polite variations of, "You must be here as soon as the store opens every day if you want a chance at getting any." And I also have to specify that only 60+ customers will be allowed in between 6:00 and 7:30 AM, after which the store will be open to all.