Before PAN India lockdown I
bought most of the groceries to sustain for a month barring few things, which I
thought could be purchased later on as usual. So now during lockdown I am
having a smooth sail and with a veggie shop close to my place, I don’t have to
think much about them either along with milk.
But there are few things which I can’t
get at the shops near my house, which made it important for me to visit the
nearest supermarket close to my place. I
ran out of sauces, spices, coffee powder and few other item kitchen items. With
no other option in hand I decided to visit the supermarket, for a change
ditched my vehicle and went on foot, it will suffice for my cardio too.
Towards the entrance of the
supermarket, there were few people standing in queue, all following the norms
of physical distancing. All of them were in their face mask and gloves, for a
moment all seemed like surgeons barring their white aprons. Staff at
supermarket allowed very few people to go inside and do the purchases at a time.
I think it’s due to crisis situation now that people were quick with their
purchases and were out of the facility.
Before my entry to the store, I
was asked to sanitize my hand and get in, for a moment I couldn’t believe I was
in a supermarket. My last visit to supermarket was a day before the lockdown,
very long period for a person like me, who frequents supermarket often, once a
week is mandatory.
Most things had run out of stock
at the store, like Maggi, frozen peas, ice cream, butter, brown bread and
sauces, I think production and distribution issue. For a moment I thought my
visit to the place had gone vain, till I found 250ml bottles of sauces, it was
great relief for me. I picked one bottle each of chilli and tomata sauce, along
with some biscuits, spices and curd. I didn’t find soya sauce, Maggie and brown
bread, was little disappointed but in this situation can’t complain about it.
At the billing counter, I witnessed
few people have stacked their trollies with things as if the store won’t open
the next day, panic buying. I think I was the only person to buy bare minimum
things actually required by me currently. After clearing the bill, I exited the facility
to walk back home to be in quarantine again. All throughout my entry and exit
to the store, I maintain physical distancing and didn’t even talk to anyone at
store, except staff for some guidance.
This visit to the supermarket will
always be memorable to me, it was one of most unique experience of my life so
far which I don’t want to counter again. Second thing was all customers treated
fellow human beings as aliens which were weird but necessary during lockdown.
