by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Restocking on same day allotted for shopping counterproductive
- New strategy to be put in place for next shopping day, Saturday, 11 April
Allowing the restocking of supermarkets and shops on the same day allotted for shopping has proven counterproductive in minimising the congregation of people in public spaces to prevent further spread of Covid-19.
Acting Commissioner of Police, Edvin Martin, addressed this observation during the live broadcast of the press conference on Monday held by Prime Minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, and the Covid-19 Response Committee.
The next shopping day allotted for the public will be on Saturday, 11 April 2020, and Commissioner Martin noted that plans for the restocking of supermarkets and shops must be revisited and a new strategy put in place. “We need to make sure that the shops are well stocked before shopping days, so going forward we will revisit that as well. So, we definitely will look at revisiting how we do the time for the supplies to come out so that when we do shopping days, all the shops and supermarkets and mini-marts should be properly stocked and the crisis of waiting for supplies to come up would be a thing of the past.”
Measures will also be put in place to allow for workers in the supply chain to refuel their vehicles. “That new strategy will also take on board making sure that the workers, as well as the supply trucks, are fuelled up and be able to operate seamlessly,” Martin said.
Considerations are being made to revisit strategy for the next shopping day with regard to whom will be allowed to refuel and shop, or whether shopping and refuelling will occur on the same day. Commissioner Martin made the point that having shoppers from St David converge with shoppers in St George created a number of challenges, and increased congestion.
Shoppers lined up in hundreds at both locations of Foodland, in the town of St George and on Kirani James boulevard, with some waiting over 10 hours in the sun for the chance to restock their homes.
Martin stated this too posed a significant challenge for law enforcement. “There was a number of factors we believe contributed to the congestion we witnessed. We experimented for the first time allowing [people] from the parish of St David to come to St George and that was a conscious decision bearing in mind that there are no large supermarkets in St David to provide adequate support to the needs of the people. So, the first day had some challenges because the measures we put in place were inadequate to handle the volume from that increase.”
To address the situation, Martin provided a solution that can mitigate the congestion on days allotted for shopping. “The significant factor contributing to the congestion is having all the activities on the same day. We need to break that up and have refuelling, supplying and shopping days independent. So, we will look at that to see how best we can redistribute the activities across the period of time that will allow us to not compromise the overarching intention of mitigating transmission.”
The Acting Commissioner thanks the public for their patience and tolerance during this period and reassures that the planning committee is working hard to ensure public safety.
God bless Grenada!
Please stay safe
If it’s revealed in the future that this heavy-handed government intrusion into every day life is going to be commonplace, and the international authoritarian reform is here to stay, I’m going to spend each and every day taking out as many agents of authority as I can manage until caught. I will live free, or I will die free. Nothing else is acceptable.
I urge you all to decide how much the free world is worth to you. If we’re to live freely, that freedom must always be fought for. There are neighborhoods, and in some places entire towns, that authoritative bodies seldom enter, because it poses to great a risk, even to the police. When push comes to shove, shove harder. Do your best to make the world too dangerous a place for any dictator to dare exert his authority.
the Supermarkets should be open at least 5 days per week. What are the benefits of opening only Saturday and maybe Monday? In a crisis like this, expect chaos Due to a super high demand and incredibly low supply. Terrible job.
I waited in many food store lines on Monday and everyone in line around me agreed there has to be a better way to do this. Very few of the hundreds waiting in line actually made it into the store and now several more days will have passed, making people’s shopping needs even greater. Farmers selling produce would be incredibly helpful. Also, the idea of shopping by age (or by letter that starts your last name?) is a good one but I think it should be by day rather than by hour (EX: All those with last names starting with G – J get to shop on Wednesday).
I think there’s too much demand to get all the 60+ (or any age group) through in hours. At a minimum, allow the elderly and essential workers to shop on a different day than the rest of us. This seemed to be a main reason the long lines never moved at Real Value – because there were three lines and a low level of management of any of them.
The supermarkets need help managing the lines and there must be better ways to do this. You could sign up online and get a time slot, thus keeping more people at home until their time comes up. Supermarkets could limit time in stores (put stickers on people with their entry time like at kids’ bouncy houses) to keep the system working.
Allowing delivery services to operate on non-shopping days would help spread the need out as well and cut down on people gathering in one place.
Give street vendors more opportunity to sell their
Freshly homegrown produce.
We all need more vegetables & fresh fruit that many supermarkets lack.
Elaine – I agree – fresh fish too…
The more food outlets that are open the less concentration of people at each one and the more chance for us to maintain social distancing…..
One idea is too allow shoppers to shop according to their age.
Everyone can carry IDs.
So 70 and older get to shop between 8 and 10 in the morning, then 60-70 can shop between 10 and 11am, 50-60 years old can shop between 11-12 noon and so on.
I also recommend supermarkets be open more frequently than just one day a week.
One day a week shopping is causing the situation to become intolerable for too many people.
Ron – I agree one day a week is a recipe for chaos and eventually civil disorder…
No other country on earth is doing that.
The UK has a much worse situation than us and their food shops are still open 7 days a week.
Please Dr Keith – step back from this crazy proposal – there might be no issue with food security but if the people cant get to a shop to buy it there certainly will be…..
The government is actively making the pandemic worse by concentrating all shopping in a few hours on a few days. This encourages panic buying as well. It would be better to spread out the shopping over more hours, every day of the week. This would decrease shopper density automatically en put less people at risk.
Good afternoon,
I would have thought that everybody thinks that is a positive step forward, as would be reopening the fresh food markets to ensure the country’s great fresh healthy produce is available to everyone, obviously in a controlled manner like the supermarkets. Thank you.
Saturday????!!!!!!!
Expect extreme chaos and public disorder