SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

So­cial dis­tanc­ing and mul­ti­ple warn­ing to stay at home were wide­ly ig­nored yes­ter­day as the pub­lic crowd­ed su­per­mar­kets and banks—al­so ig­nor­ing the an­nounce­ment by Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young that su­per­mar­kets are es­sen­tial ser­vices and would not be closed.

The Su­per­mar­kets As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SAPP) al­so is­sued a state­ment con­firm­ing their busi­ness­es were an es­sen­tial ser­vice yes­ter­day and that they would not be closed over the next sev­er­al weeks.

But this did not stop mem­bers of the pub­lic from lin­ing up for hours out­side su­per­mar­kets across the coun­try and crowd­ing aisles as they con­tin­ued pan­ic buy­ing af­ter gov­ern­ment an­nounced all non-es­sen­tial ser­vices would be shut down from mid­night on Sun­day.

Su­per­mar­ket chain Massy Stores is­sued a state­ment yes­ter­day say­ing it would be lim­it­ing the num­ber of peo­ple al­lowed in its store with im­me­di­ate ef­fect. It said this was be­ing done to en­sure that Massy could con­tin­ue to pro­vide a safe shop­ping en­vi­ron­ment to cus­tomers and for its staff.

At Xtra Foods Su­per­mar­kets, so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines were al­so be­ing im­ple­ment­ed. Shop­pers are be­ing made to wash their hands be­fore en­ter­ing the su­per­mar­kets three lo­ca­tions and the num­ber of cus­tomers be­ing al­lowed in stores is be­ing lim­it­ed.

The group’s Mar­ket­ing Man­ag­er, Daniel Austin told Guardian Me­dia cus­tomers have been ad­vised to that on­ly one mem­ber of each fam­i­ly should be sent to pur­chase sup­plies in store.

“Bring­ing more than one per­son is putting your­self, your fam­i­ly and loved ones and our staff at greater risk,” Austin said.

Austin said all of the su­per­mar­kets’ em­ploy­ees are be­ing giv­en an in­cen­tive for show­ing up to work every day.

“Once you come to work and you are not late for more than two days for the week, you are giv­en a $250 vouch­er for gro­ceries,” Austin said.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to sev­er­al peo­ple at PriceS­mart, In­vaders Bay Port of Spain to find out why they were flock­ing to the su­per­mar­ket.

Su­per­mar­kets are an es­sen­tial ser­vice and will re­main open dur­ing the stay-at-home pe­ri­od.

Arnold Mc­Dow­ell, 69, said he was not pan­ic buy­ing but sim­ply stock­ing up for the next three months so he does not have to leave his home at all dur­ing the pe­ri­od.

“I am just prepar­ing my­self to be able to stay at home and not have to leave for any rea­son over the next two or three months, I am not work­ing and I don’t want to be out­side for any rea­son be­cause I don’t know what could hap­pen with this virus,” Mc­Dow­ell said.

An­oth­er cus­tomer, Kathy-Ann said she too want­ed to stock up so she wouldn’t have to leave her home dur­ing the lock­down.

She said she chose to do her shop­ping on Fri­day evening be­cause she felt as though there would be more peo­ple shop­ping on Sat­ur­day.

“I am not pan­ic buy­ing but if the num­bers go up dras­ti­cal­ly I might pan­ic buy next week,” she said. My sis­ter and my daugh­ters are at high risk so I want­ed to come when it was a lit­tle qui­eter to do my shop­ping.”

Mean­while po­lice will be on pa­trol try­ing to break up large crowds out­side of su­per­mar­kets as cit­i­zens rush to pan­ic buy ahead of Sun­day night’s shut­down of non-es­sen­tial ser­vices.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith said the TTPS has not­ed that su­per­mar­ket own­ers are do­ing their part to en­sure so­cial dis­tanc­ing in their busi­ness places but said cus­tomers are not ad­her­ing to the warn­ings.

“There are many busi­ness­es who are ad­her­ing to their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties but by do­ing that, it is caus­ing a line up on the out­side and there­in lies the prob­lem be­cause now there is a mass as­sem­bly of per­sons and they are not so­cial dis­tanc­ing,” Grif­fith said.

He re­it­er­at­ed that this mea­sure is not a heavy-hand­ed po­lice ex­er­cise but one to ed­u­cate the pub­lic.

Grif­fith said he would be li­ais­ing with the Su­per­mar­kets As­so­ci­a­tion to see what oth­er mea­sures can be put in place.