Butcher Boys copes with COVID-19 buyers

Mar 19, 2020 | 11:24 AM

A local grocery store has been so busy with panic buyers over the COVID-19 pandemic that it has hired almost a dozen new people to stock shelves.

Manager Tamsen Guidi said an extra 1,500 customers shopped in Butcher Boys on Friday and Saturday alone and grocery orders of $300 and $400 have been made.

Guidi said the new workers include at least three people recently laid off from their jobs and a businesswoman who had to shut shop due to the sudden downturn in the economy.

Others include friends, family and even a customer who offered to pitch in.

“It’s very much, head down, let’s get through this like we always do,” Guidi said of the situation. “All I can really say is we’ve really pulled together.”

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Guidi said the vibe in the store remains positive despite the circumstances as staff acknowledge they are on the front line of the virus situation.

“The madness started [last] Thursday evening then Friday and Saturday [it was] full tilt,” Guidi said.

The store has continued to be extra busy although the manager is hoping it is now tailing off.

Limits for certain items are in place for ground beef, fresh bread and toilet paper.

Guidi said there were some large meat buys, although nothing like a shopping cart full, and that staff had to “put the brakes” on one customer who was loading up on frozen meat.

“People have been really understanding,” she said.

Guidi said it has been hard to follow the one-to-two metre social distancing recommendation, including at the till but she said cashiers took extra precautions by sanitizing the belts, counters, cash register, phones and pin pads and their hands after every customer and on the hour.

“We’ve hired an extra cleaning crew that comes in and sanitizes every door handle, window, buggy handle, basket handle, all of the coolers, washrooms,” she said.

“We really are on the front line but there is a call to duty out there.”

Guidi would like customers to know on Wednesday evening, Butcher Boys’ debit/credit machines went down.

But she stresses it was a nationwide shutdown by the company, Global Payments, after the system failed to cope with panic buying.

by Kate Bouey

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