On one side of the aisle, the freezers were full with ice cream. On the other side, a lone jug of 2-percent milk sat next to a depleted section of eggs.
There was no shortage of nonessential items at the Swampscott Stop & Shop Friday afternoon, but shelves normally holding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or bottled water were barren. There was also no shortage of shoppers, who crowded the store and packed their shopping carts with food and supplies.
“People are freaked out,” said Alberto Ruiz, who was stocking up on canned goods and other nonperishable foods. “I don’t think it’s that bad. I’m not scared, but you have got to be careful.”
Ruiz was one of many shoppers preparing in the event they are quarantined due to potential exposure to COVID-19, a type of coronavirus that has been deemed pandemic by the World Health Organization, infecting more than 100,000.
Mary Gregory, another shopper, said she was concerned for her boyfriend, who has a preexisting respiratory condition and could be more susceptible to dying from the coronavirus, which presents symptoms similar to the flu. She said she had to buy enough food for herself and him before more goods start running out.
“He’s not quarantining, I’d say, but he’s staying at home as much as possible,” Gregory said. “We both are trying not to go to too many crowded places or anything like that, but you’ve got to go get food.”
Some weren’t concerned at all. Others were frustrated. Whispers of, “Crazy,” or, “This is ridiculous,” could be heard from shoppers searching for a nonexistent roll of toilet paper. One man, in a voice only half joking, said, “I’m on my super special coronavirus shopping spree,” to whomever he was talking to on his phone.
The manager at the Swampscott Stop & Shop, Andrew Ziner, declined to comment on the situation. Calls to a Stop & Shop spokeswoman were not answered.
Preparedness isn’t just a topic among grocery store shoppers, but among parents of students at Swampscott’s schools. According to Hilary Foutes, whose daughter is a high school freshman, the school administration emailed a survey about home technology to students’ families, inquiring about the families’ readiness in case students have to be educated remotely.
A day after that email was sent out, Swampscott — and 27 other North Shore school districts — announced schools would be closed until at least March 27.
“Every day feels like it’s blending into the next. It’s quite surreal,” Foutes said.
Foutes said she is glad the schools have closed, because waiting until a student or teacher contracts COVID-19 would be “too late.” It’s also unrealistic to have students constantly using hand sanitizer at school, even if it’s available in the classroom now, because it’s flying off the shelves at local stores, she said.
Foutes said she normally buys things like toilet paper in bulk, but has been buying “extra” lately and stocking up on essential items. She said it’s because people want to be prepared in the event they have to stay home for long periods of time.
“It’s because everybody is like, ‘What if we get quarantined?’” Foutes said. “At any point we could get quarantined because someone gets sick, but we could also get quarantined as a town, we could get quarantined as a state. We just don’t know.”
