Remember January, Australia?
Remember those terrifying days of fires that wouldn’t be extinguished, of misplaced people, of homes lost, lives lost, choking thick air lowered over everywhere and everyone?
Remember what happened? The mass emptying of wallets. The food drives. Volunteers working until they fell. Donation trucks on the highways. Kids knitting tiny gloves for koalas.
Remember that great exhale of “This is who we are”? We are kind. We are generous. We help a mate. This is us.
Well, we’re scared again, now. Terrified of something just as rampant, just as deadly as a mega-fire, but insidious, invisible.
Yet those days of “us” not “me” feel far away.
Today, a supermarket employee is in hospital after being stabbed in a Mornington Peninsula Woolworths car park where they were collecting trolleys.
At another Woolworths, this time in Melbourne, a worker was assaulted by a man with a stick.
And our feeds are clogged with viral videos of brawls at the checkout, arguments in the toilet-paper aisles and the news that now we have to make special space for the elderly and vulnerable to shop, because supermarkets are apparently too crowded and dangerous any other time.
Is there anything less neighbourly than hoarding soap and disinfectant, so you have lots of it, but next-door have none?
Is there anything that says, “Screw you, I’m alright,” more loudly than stealing hand-sanitiser from public stations at hospitals, offices and schools?
Top Comments
Let’s keep the finger pointed where it should. Our extremely wealthy supermarkets have done nothing to take control of, let alone communicate about, the grocery situation and no wonder. A staff member told me they’re making the same money as the week before Christmas. Pandemonium pays for them. We should be demanding they solve this grocery situation by formulating and communicating a staggered schedule at each local store so that everyone gets what they need. We’ve been told Australia isn’t short of food so the problem is the distribution. Supermarkets - sort it! Start by explaining WHY toilet paper is unavailable right now and tell us what you are going to do to resolve it ASAP.
Before the rationing, the problem started when greedy people stuffed their trolleys with as many rolls of loo paper they could fit in. . It set off a chain reaction with everyone following suit. It wasn't the elderly or disabled doing this, but the selfishness of some people who have created the shortages. You forget supplies can also be affected. A worker at a chicken factory in Adelaide was diagnosed with the virus, so the whole place was shut down for 2 weeks, affecting supply. The same could happen at the toilet paper factories or any other food production source. Stop blaming supermarkets for the revolting behaviour of individuals, although the supermarkets should have stopped bulk buying before it became epidemic.
But it's not greed. People don't have time to go to the supermarket every day looking or shopping for staple items, they are busy working, keeping the economy going as Scomo keeps talking about. If supermarkets would allow every household to do a full weekly shop on one specified day of the week, there wouldn't be a deluge of people having to be there every day. Divide it up by letters of the alphabet or street names for local supermarkets or something. It isn't that hard. Limiting quantities just makes us all have to shop every couple of days which risks a scrum.The supermarkets also haven't cleared space to hold more staples in their store. My supermarkets still have the same pathetic two shelves to hold toilet paper. Open up a whole aisle, get rid of things like garden stuff and confectionery that isn't essential to hold more staples when they get a delivery. Pay some air-tasker guys with trucks to pick up toilet paper and deliver each day to local supermarkets, if distribution is the problem. They can afford it. With all their money, you'd think they could also afford to hire some thinkers to come up with a solution!
Allow each family to do a weekly shop- you mean like they do literally all the time? I don’t know how you expect supermarkets to get the public to behave differently, it wasn’t them that changed it was the insane mob mentality. And what if you can’t get to the shops on your allocates day/time- do you have to wait another week?
Theres no shortage of food or supplies in Australia, but that has nothing to do with Karen and Bob elbowing their way to fill their trolleys with more than they need each morning. The factories produce what they can, but it’s going straight in people’s cupboards to hoard.
As for restrictions, it only took them a few days to implement them. I guess they thought that people would realise how stupid fighting over toilet paper is after the first rush- apparently not.
I actually think they’ve been doing really well, and the hour for seniors and the disabled is a great idea that is being imitated the world over now.
We do focus on the bad too much. In my community on the Buy Nothing pages we are helping out elderly neighbours by buying groceries/etc for them, so they don’t have to face the crowds. Unfortunately I can’t help so much now due to online shopping being cancelled - so I’m hoping this gets up again soon. I’ve also delivered some TP to a few neighbours as I always buy in bulk online so I already had bulk supplies before the craziness started and I’m very happy to share.