The Coronavirus Panic Thread

[Monterey Jack]

I've been on vacation the last week, so I haven't been on ground zero of the current panic buying, but I was in the store today, and the T.P. section is WIPED OUT [rimshot], and there's very little paper towels or tissues left, either. How many times per day does someone need to wipe their butt?!

Going back on Sunday, and not looking forward to having customers ask me a hundred times per day when we're getting in fresh deliveries of T.P. and hand sanitizer. :sad:

[Smapti]

Today was even crazier than yesterday. Yesterday we broke a daily sales record that had stood since grand opening - today we shattered that record, and we're likely going to close at over $500k in sales for the day. When I came in at noon, we had all our checkstands open and the line stretched all the way to the back of the store. When I left 9 hours later the line was still most of the way to the back. Our shelves look like a hurricane just came through and we're actually going to be closing down overnight (we're normally 24 hours) so the freight crew can stock and clean up.

Given that the governor has now cancelled public school statewide, I don't expect the panic to die down until people either start getting sick and staying home, or they run out of space for all the toilet paper they're hoarding. My boss talked me into coming in two hours early tomorrow, which I expect to be just as balls-to-the-wall as today was.

[Seanette]

My condolences (and I think I now know where you work). I hit about three different stores today. Did get some more soda, plus paper towels, kleenex, and paper napkins (I figure those can pinch-hit for most other paper goods if necessary). Two of the three places I went had signs proclaiming that they were altering their hours to allow for stocking. One was closing earlier/opening later, another that was 24hr is now closing from midnight-5am.

[Despina83]

After my state finally got hit with the virus the other day, we have been BEYOND insane. We're talking lines going to the back of the damn huge store. I'm a floor worker, but me and my coworkers have been doing nothing but cashiering, and holy God does it suck!! Sore everything being up there for hours, UGH. And the place looks like stores down south do a day or two before a hurricane hits.

[Dreamstalker]

Being a 'gourmet' store we're probably slower than most but still decent traffic. Can't imagine what it would be like if we did sell sanitizer/TP. The good news is that the asshole-customer brigade is nowhere to be seen; either they buggered out or are paying through the nose for delivery. I was actually helping cashiers with delivery orders for a while as I know the store like the back of my paw--far faster if I can fetch product for them.

All I restocked yesterday was pasta. Given my team situation I'm considering asking if I can pick up more hours next week (after the 22nd my schedule is back to normal-ish but next week I only have 13 hours )

[Mental_Mouse]

I just called out for Monday. It would have been a backroom shift anyway, as my boss is already in the hospital for unrelated matters. But this marks the beginning of me "turtling up". More or less, I still have a couple of laundry loads to do.

[Marmalady]

On a lighter note, somebody (supposedly a customer, but I have my suspicions) left a wire loop hanging from one of our empty TP shelves, with squares of newspaper dangling from it im time-honoured 'back of the thunderbox door' fashion.

[dalesys]

... in time-honoured 'back of the thunderbox door' fashion.

Where's a Sears catalog when you're desperate?

[YamiNoHime]

My husband was at WalMart yesterday. The beer aisle was empty except for the...wait for it...Corona. He saw 2 old ladies fighting over a 4 pack of TP and started singing, loudly, "It's the End of the World as we Know it"

[Seanette]

I like your husband's style.

[YamiNoHime]

SO do I. Part of how we've been married 25 years

[Ironclad Alibi]

My husband was at WalMart yesterday. The beer aisle was empty except for the...wait for it...Corona. He saw 2 old ladies fighting over a 4 pack of TP and started singing, loudly, "It's the End of the World as we Know it"

Hmmm... I have a 12 pack of beer in the garage. I wonder how much I could get for it?

[Monterey Jack]

My first shift back today (was asked in a day early, and said what the hell, because I was bored of staycation and can always use the extra money), and it wasn't nearly as insane as I was expecting. My manager said it was complete pandemonium earlier in the week, so maybe the worst is behind us, but the paper goods aisle is almost completely decimated (only a few stray small packs of "fancy" napkins left, not even tissues of any kind), and the pasta aisle and related sauces are running very low, not to mention the fresh meat department. Maybe once everything IS totally gone, people will stay the fuck home and give us a chance to get some new shipments in, but I have a fear that, the second we do get new stock out, it'll take one asshole Tweeting about it to have the hoards descending upon us again with renewed T.P.-craving fervor.

[Kagato]

My soon-to-be new workplace has implemented a new (and rather interesting) option, called "no-contact deliveries", where as long as you prepay on the website in advance, the driver will leave the delivery on the doorstep, move back to their car, phone them to say "You can come out to pick up your order" and then leave once the order has been picked up.

[Trixie]

We're out of toilet paper and only have a few rolls of paper towels. Tissues and napkins are still full. We're out of big bags of cough drops. And milk. Overall food, supply is good. Management put up the sales figures for our district. My store was #2 with something we haven't seen since Christmas. Our pharmacy did $10K more than the front end!

My assistant manager did write a nice note about how much they do appreciate us working through all the craziness. Maybe we should get combat pay but until the company decides otherwise that's going to have to do.