I bought 36 loo rolls a month before lockdown.
Then on the Friday before the first lockdown, I was in Lidl and they only allowed one pack per customer. The couple in front of me on checkout had two packs and asked could they buy a second pack separately. The cashier said no.
Where the till was, you could see the loo roll section which was empty. The cashier saw me with no loo roll in my shopping. She asked me to a massive favour of buying the loo roll section- 9 pack. As if placed in the shelf, all hell would break loose. I did take up the offer.
I must be the only person that was made to buy loo roll like that!
Then the about a few days before that, we had a loo roll delivery. Colleagues took a pack each. When they finished their shift and buying loo roll, customers asked how come the staff got loo roll. I said to them, you might have forgotten that staff and their families have bladders and bowels too. Nobody said anything back. Probably shocked by what I said or knocked some common sense into their brains for a minute.
A colleague buying loo roll has a 25 minute walk to/from work. I was finishing at the same time as her. I insisted that I took her home. As that would be the only time if she was carrying loo roll in one hand and the world’s most expensive diamond in the other, that the diamond wouldn’t be taken.
It was horrible seeing the store’s shelves obliterated bar sun tan lotion, for obvious reasons. We cried on seeing the store looking like that.
We saw people that we never seen before. As they were doing the rounds of buying stuff that was selling out then going to other places to do the same.
There was a shop in another part of the county where they let a man buy 9 packs of 24 rolls for two days running and someone on FB took the photos and uploaded them. I believe they worked in a hairdressers opposite. Who the hell needs 432 loo rolls?
I came down with, what was later on to be Covid the day after visiting Lidl. There were no test centres in my county. Nearest two were 45 miles away. No strength to hold a pen let alone drive 90 mile round trip. Had an antibody test 6 weeks later to confirm I had covid.
My employer said to me that as asthmatic, but not that bad to get shielding letter. That I was able to have up to end of May (extended by another month later on) off fully paid, providing I used 8-10 days of my annual leave. I had that amount booked off in the period anyway. Due to my worsening asthma thanks to covid, which also had in July ‘22, my medications would make me shield on the criteria based on March ‘20.
Apologies for the long post. It was needed to explain.