Grocery stores crowding after Gov. Brian Kemp issues shelter in place order

On Wednesday, April 1, during a press conference that streamed live on social media, Governor Brian Kemp announced that he would be signing a Shelter-in-Place order for the state of Georgia and revealing the details of it the following day. The announcement sparked another shopping frenzy in middle Georgians, causing thousands of them to flock to area stores and stock up on food and other available supplies that they deemed necessary.

That afternoon, at the Kroger grocery store on Watson Boulevard in Warner Robins, an available parking space in the lot was nearly impossible to find. The same could be said for available shopping carts. All of the return racks in the parking lot, as well as the space in the entranceway of the store, where carts are generally stocked, were completely empty. Anxious would-be shoppers, who weren’t among the earlier arrivers, stood around the empty lobby in hopes that someone on the inside would soon finish their shopping so that they could get the cart that would be abandoned.

The antibacterial wipe dispenser that, in recent past, had been stationed in the lobby of the store near the carts had been shifted to the inside of the store. A clerk was heard saying that it had been moved because people had been coming inside, only as far as the lobby, and grabbing hands full of the cleaning wipes before escaping back to their vehicles. Her guess was that they were taking the wipes home for their personal use in light of the major shortage of high-demand antibacterial products on store shelves.

Inside Kroger, shoppers loaded up their carts, and then were forced to stand in excessively long lines that stretched from the cashier all the way down the aisles of the store. Strips of tape on the floor leading to check-out stations marked the points of six feet of separation, reminding customers of social distancing guidelines. If the floor markers weren’t reminders enough of how COVID-19 has changed the way we do things, the many patrons wearing masks and gloves and the plastic guards that provided a shield to divide cashiers from consumers at the register, gave other obvious signals.

When Thursday came, and the details of the signed order were released, social media feedback indicated that many in the community were highly disappointed. They’d expected the Governor’s changes to be much more shocking; an expectation that fully explained the store rush of the previous day. The impact of COVID-19 is far from over. This wasn’t the first panic-fueled shopping frenzy since the announcement of this pandemic, and it probably won’t be the last. Kemp has held another live press conference since April 1, and no doubt, even more are on the way as we all work together to overcome the first—and hopefully the last—pandemic we’ve ever faced in our lifetimes.

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