Our store entrance is 207 steps from the toilet-paper display. This is a distance of about 158 meters or 173 yards, or almost the length of two 90-yard dashes, which today’s first shopper covered in just 1.3 minutes, only to be met with disappointment.
The shelves were bare. His letdown was followed by despair from the people directly behind him, who yelled, “Oh, my god!” and “Nothing!”
The stragglers, those who took 2 or more minutes to reach this far corner of the store, responded in kind. Everyone looked crestfallen. You could hear the anguish from three aisles away, where someone shouted to other shoppers, “They don’t have any!”
There had been so many false hopes through the night. Early trucks brought sorely needed goods such as diapers, cereal and pet food, but no toilet paper.
Just before the store opened at 6 a.m., another truck pulled up. We got excited before learning it was a mere bread delivery. Bread was also in short supply, but it lacked the supremacy of toilet paper.
Maybe later this morning, we told customers, who were understanding and found other ways to fill their carts.