The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Food retailers yesterday said Bahamians are “abiding” by the government’s new shopping list protocol even though the upcoming five-day lockdown means many face “an all-out war” to restock.

Bradley Rolle, Centreville Food Market’s general manager, told Tribune Business: “The shopping list is going pretty good. It’s just that there are some people who were not aware that the shopping list had actually come out. The shopping list was leaked out on social media, so a lot of people were trying to figure out how authentic it was.

“People showed up to the food store yesterday morning not knowing that they had to go by a shopping list, but now that the prime minister has made it known in Parliament everyone is falling in line. Prior to that there was no official information coming out to the public about the shopping list taking effect on a particular day, so it is out and it is in force and people are abiding by that.”

However, Mr Rolle questioned the logic of the shopping list based on the five-day Easter weekend lockdown. “One thing I find very interesting, though, if there is going to be a shut down as of Wednesday 9pm, and then we resume 5am on Tuesday, then the shopping list doesn’t make any sense,” he argued.

“So it is like, for now, an all-out war to have enough items in your house until next week Tuesday. You should just level the playing field and allow people to come and get items if you are going to shut down Wednesday at 9pm. But for the most part for the first five hours yesterday it was fine. People came and they had their identification, and we allowed them to shop, so we will see what happens.”

The government’s food shopping schedule is designed to minimise the number of Bahamians travelling on the road and/or visiting grocery stores in a bid to halt the COVID-19 pandemic’s spread locally. It calls for households to designate one person to shop on their behalf and, based on the first letter of their surname, they will be allowed to purchase food at certain times on specific days.

Adults with a surname beginning with the letters A through F will be allowed to shop on Mondays from 6am to noon, Wednesdays from 6am to noon, and Thursdays from 1pm to 7pm.

Adults with surnames beginning with G through O will be allowed to shop on Mondays from 1pm to 7pm, Wednesdays from 1pm to 7pm, and Fridays from 6am to noon.

Adults whose last name begins with letters P through Z will be allowed to shop on Tuesdays from 1pm to 7pm, Fridays from 1pm to 7pm and Thursdays 6am to noon.

Travarus Barrow, general manager of the Phoenix supermarket on East Street South, said: “Everything is under control from our perspective. We are following through with procedure governmental wise, and the people are just abiding by what they see happening right now.

“The only thing is the weather putting a little damper on things, but they are still coming. People are still coming, especially after the announcement that on Wednesday everything shuts down for sure. Everyone is in a frenzy.”

When asked if customers were abiding by the government’s shopping schedule, Mr Barrow added: “We had no problem with that. Everybody has been showing their identification and, as they come in the store, we just adjust things as we see fit. They are not bringing their kids like last week.

“For instance, one or two people tried to bring their kids inside the store, but we told them that they have to leave their kids inside the car and they are abiding by things and they are following.”