This is why it was stupid to close supermarkets on Friday
Stuff reports:
Supermarket queues are longer than ever, as shoppers brave the queues to restock after one day closure.
After the supermarkets closed on Good Friday, New World Wellington City, known to locals as Chaffers, had a line around the block by midday. Other supermarkets around the capital reportedly long waits, even by lockdown standards.
People have had to queue up for as long as 90 minutes, just to get in the door. It was madness to force supermarkets to close for a day.
For the last two weeks, many supermarkets have had queues to get in. This is for three reasons.
- All other food outlets such as butchers and green grocers are closed, so more people are going to supermarkets
- Many supermarkets have shorter opening hours than normal to give them time to restock
- Social distancing means fewer people allowed in a store at any one time
So more people trying to shop in fewer hours and with less capacity has meant queues most days.
But when the Government then forces every supermarket to close on Friday, of course you are going to have massive queues on Saturday as you have twice as many people trying to shop.
The Government allowed supermarkets to open today, which was a partial victory. But they should have allowed them to open on Friday also. Frankly making people queue for 90 minutes to get into a supermarket helps no-one.