Ever since the news about Covid-19 coming into the UK, it feels like the majority of people have been thinking along the lines of “every man for themselves”, or at least that is how it seemed in Tesco everyday.
Panic buying was taking place and people were going mad.
It’s funny that something so serious and deadly, really shows the true colours in many people and shows that the human race might actually be more selfish than we first imagined. As quoted by William E Gladstone, “Selfishness is the greatest curse on the human race”.
The only thing getting me through each day whilst working at Tesco is the knowledge that many aren’t being selfish and many are putting their lives on the line to provide care and help find a cure.
I think the worst part about my days at work is telling elderly customers that we don’t have toilet paper left or the specific brand of hand gel they usually buy, all because of some people buying way too much.
“Selfishness is the greatest curse on the human race”.
Everyday for the past two weeks, at 6am, we’ve had a line of people waiting fo the store to open in order for them to get what they need and then get out, but do they really need six packets of four toilet rolls?
No probably not.
We have the usuals that come in; the cafe owners, the office workers, the night shift workers, etc.
But when you start to see families or groups of people all running around as if they are playing Supermarket Sweep, that is when you know that something is not right.
There are not enough hours during the night to re-stock the shelves and not enough products on deliveries for the amount of people coming in during the days.
I work alongside some pretty positive people and even I can see their shells starting to crumble with the amount of panic that is consuming the store.
Speaking to Molly Carter, fellow Tesco colleague, she said, “As soon as the media began flooding with news of the Coronavirus, the increase in customers within the first couple of weeks was phenomenal. People were quickly piling up their trolleys, buying all sorts of dry and non-perishable items.”
If this is the start of many more months of this kind of panic buying then supermarkets need more help to prepare for each day, with the amount of staff to customers we currently have coming in, it just isn’t enough.
Only time will tell.