COVID-19: Panic Buying In 30-Day Alcohol Sale Cease
Spira Tlhankane | Monday March 30, 2020 19:03
For someone who drinks and goes out regularly, one may have never had to deal with this before and a lot goes through one’s mind as one plans for their alcohol taste buds.
Even the two-week period during the festive season never brings that kind of dilemma because one would have that option of buying in between. On social media feeds, various liquor stores post their last minute specials and for that moment one would not care about a preferred choice of drink but rather the quantity would seem to matter more.
That describes the situation of panic buyers who were in frenzy in the endless queues on Friday, as the hours of alcohol buying melted away before their eyes. Fashionable drinkers knew that in order to survive the 30 days of self-isolation amid the coronavirus outbreak, they had to stockpile a lot of alcohol.
The Monitor team made its first stop at Trans wholesaler along the Old Lobatse road where many people had lined up at the liquor store and the police and security were busy controlling the situation.
Many were there to empty those shelves and amongst the brands that were quickly selling out were Castle Lite because it had been put on special. As people came out with trolleys full of beer cases there were complaints from those in the queue that there was inconsiderate stockpiling. The police and security made sure that a certain number of people got inside. Inside the store there was an element of herding behaviour as people took others’ beer when they were not looking.
Instead of keeping calm and being selfless, people’s actions were replaced with anxious individualism. Some were receiving calls from others outside requesting favours. Looking at the time some knew that the doors would soon close before they got a chance to get in, but they kept their fingers crossed and hoped that the line would keep moving, if at all faster. As others got out with bar size stockpiles of alcohol, they knew that there was a chance everything would be sold out.
From there The Monitor headed to Sefalana at Broadhurst and although there was a queue, there wasn’t much activity.
The next stop was Trans in Mogoditshane and it was even worse because the line started outside the premises. Men and women were standing in the scorching heat as they waited their turn to buy.
The progress was a bit slower but patience was key. The thought of being sober for the better part of April kept them going.
On the supermarket side of Trans, there was less number of people in the queue. Taxis outside the establishment were busy offering services and they had never been that busy in a long time. Across two streets Sefalana Hyper was busy and just as the previous day, people panic bought all the beers on special clearing the shelves. But this time around the situation was much more calm and controllable.
Since the wholesalers were closing at 1700hrs, those who did not get the chance to buy had one more shot at Tops and Liquorama stores across the city. The stores’ trading hours had been extended a week earlier from 1730hrs to 2000hrs so, by 1800hrs people were already in their lines.
It was worth noting that there was no crowding compared to the bulk buying seen at the wholesale stores earlier. Finally, the hour came and all the buying was halted, and the locks will remain unturned for the next 30 days. In that time people will get accustomed to changes and they will soon understand that there’s a new normal.