The Mezzanine

I stopped at Mitcham Coles near the beginning on the way back from somewhere thinking I'd get some bread and it was... apocalyptic. There was nothing, just rows and rows of empty shelves. I wish I'd taken a photo now, but I didn't because everyone was posting photos of it and so I thought why add to them.

I'd actually followed the Coles truck into the supermarket, and whatever was on it was unloaded and gone within minutes it felt like (probably longer in reality, but I really wasn't that far behind it, and there was nothing.)

No pasta, bread, toilet paper, toiletries, washing powder, tissues, soap of any description, baked beans, rice, beans (actually there were dried beans, which surprised me), flour of any description, sugar, weetbix, canned tomatoes, canned everything else, frozen everything, meat, tomato paste, herbs - my suburb apparently only knows how to cook about three dishes, one of which is spaghetti bolognaise based on what vanished - fresh produce... it was utterly bizarre. I mean it was a respiratory virus, not a freaking post-nuclear attack. The supply chains were intact.

And then when we hit the second lockdown people went crazy again and the toilet paper vanished again!! And again when the Sydney cases hit! I swear a lot of Melbourne has PTSD manifesting in a desperate urge to buy toilet paper every time the case numbers rise.