Fairprice Staff Says Last Weekend’s Crowd Is ‘The Craziest He’s Ever Seen in 11 Years’

If you’ve been reading Goody Feed, you would be aware that besides the COVID-19 that’s wreaking havoc in Singapore, there is another virus on the loose.

It’s called the Kiasu Virus. Little is known about it and there is currently no cure.

In fact, FairPrice is just one among the many retailers that have been hit hard by the Kiasu Virus:

Fairprice Staff Says Last Weekend’s Crowd Is ‘The Craziest He’s Ever Seen in 11 Years’

The “panic buying spree” in FairPrice that followed Singapore’s decision to raise the DORSCON level to orange emptied out shelves of groceries like rice and instant noodles. 

The situation persisted and became so bad that FairPrice felt the need to limit the number of daily necessities like rice that each person can purchase.

According to The New Paper, one customer carried more than 120 rolls of toilet paper while another person had a trolley filled with nothing but bags of rice.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the store was littered with at least 20 baskets filled with frozen food that was abandoned by those who decided they no longer wanted to queue for 10000 hours to panic buy.

The frozen food could not be put back on the shelves as they had already been thawed. As a result, they were sent back to their suppliers.

A branch manager at the 24-hour FairPrice outlet in Bedok North Street 1 told The New Paper that last Friday and Saturday, the crowds were the craziest he’d ever seen in his 11 long years of working at FairPrice.

Those who were at the Bedok North outlet had to queue for as long as three hours in order to purchase their items.

The staff were forced to work OT since they had to man the checkout counters, while volunteers from FairPrice headquarters came down to on Saturday to provide assistance.

At least one cashier worked OT until 1am that day before returning the next day at 6.45am for the next shift. There wasn’t even time for toilet breaks or rest.

But for those who are reading this while biting their nails, don’t worry, Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong said that the major retailers like FairPrice will be stocked “in a day or two”.