14 March 2020 / 09:19 (UTC-07 Tango 06) 24 Esfand 1398/19 Rajab 1441/21 Ji-Mao 4718
CoViD-19=CoronaVirus Disease 2019
On the morning of 13 March, Idaho’s Governor Brad Little declared a State of Emergency over the CoViD-19 pandemic. Shortly after that President Donald Trump declared a National Emergency. Later in the day Governor Little revealed the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Idaho. Without warning the store I prefer to do my grocery shopping at, and the only remaining 24 hours operation in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area, suspended their overnight sales purportedly to “clean” the store as a result of the CoViD-19 pandemic.
“24 Hours of Savings WinCo Foods” re-opened at 05:00 (5am), I arrived at 05:30 and it was already mayhem!
The pics were taken with my phone cam which has a fogged lens. These checkout lines are what greeted me at 05:30, just 30 minutes after WinCo re-opened! They run to the back of the warehouse style store.
Many of the fresh meat items were gone, all the fresh ground beef was gone, by 05:30!
The empty shelves on the left side of the above pic used to be filled with pancake syrup. Pancake syrup, really, do you people need that much pancake syrup? The empty shelves on the right of the pic is where sugar used to be, all gone now.
The infamous toilet paper isle, this time WinCo was not able to re-stock before opening.
I bought $60 worth of food. I got in at 05:30 and didn’t get out until 07:00, the lines were that long, and despite most of WinCo’s check stands being open.
I stopped in at the next door Fred Meyer, they weren’t crowded, but were missing many items as well. An employee told me things have been getting crazy after 08:30 and they’ve been having trouble getting orders into corporate. One of the items I noticed they were out of was bottled water, mmmm, I don’t remember CoViD-19 being able to shut-off your water supply.
Fred Meyer at the former Pocatello Mall location
The employee I talked to pointed out something that makes sense; many people in eastern Idaho save up their money for the end of year holiday season, but people are now spending money like mad due to the CoViD-19 fear-mongering, on top of that people are already being told not to come to work, the result will be that many people here in eastern Idaho are not going to have money to spend for the end of year holidays.
MORE ECONOMIC DECLINE FOR EASTERN IDAHO: COVID-19 SHUTDOWN 24HRS WINCO?