Businesses are reopening across the country. The immediate impact of that for me is that Amazon is returning to normal.
I ordered popcorn on March 20, just as the panic was setting in. Amazon was overwhelmed, and giving priority to its Prime customers. I didn’t receive it until the first of May. A six week delay.
I had learned you can’t have two open orders with Amazon, unless you’re willing to have them combined. If that’s a small package that’s OK. Popcorn is too heavy to be combined with anything else, but their computer would do it anyway.
As soon as I got a shipping notice, I tried to order popcorn again. My brand no longer was available. The order I placed May 8 didn’t ship until the first of June. The month’s wait was a little longer than it had been before the crisis, when Amazon seemed to be delaying shipping on items to non-Prime customers.
As soon as that order shipped, I ordered again on June 2. That one was shipped on June 5. Amazon was back to normal, and I may finally have enough on hand to survive until the new crop is harvested in the fall.
My local grocery store is not as lucky. It still has areas with empty shelves, but at least two men were reloading shelves when I was there today.
Restocking is the last step in reopening businesses. Food production companies have to reopen first. Few produce only one item, so decisions are made about the order of items to schedule in their lines. Then, they have to decide how to allocate the production. No doubt, small, independent grocers come after large chains.
As I drove from my home to the grocery and on to the post office, I saw the parking lots of all the restaurants were about half full. That is, they were as full as they allowed to be under the current restraints on occupancy.
I don’t know if restaurants will have the same problems as the local grocery in getting supplies. They began with the foods they had in storage when they closed. Frozen items were still there; perishable ones have to be replaced daily.
These restaurants are probably our only local businesses, besides the grocers and a drug store. Small clothing and electronic stores disappeared a long time ago. They’ve been replaced by the big box and dollar stores, which never closed, and by the second-hand stores, which were not deemed essential.
The restaurants are more than local businesses. Until the arrival of the casinos, they were the only centers for community life. When I moved here, people knew the names of the cooks, and swore by them. Then, Rio Grande Café and Angelina’s on the middle bridge road were the favorites.
While reopening businesses at the national level has meant more goods in local stores, it has been accompanied with increases in the number of new cases of coronavirus. New Mexico is one of 14 states to see its "highest-ever seven-day average of new virus cases at the start of June." [1]
Rio Arriba County continues to see new cases nearly every day. Memorial Day was May 25. In the next week, 11 people tested positive for coronavirus, and we had our first death. Since June 2, we’ve had 9 new reports. [2]
As I’ve indicated in my post for May 29, I have no idea what that increase bodes, because of the sheer size of Rio Arriba County.
I suspect the problem isn’t infections passed between neighbors. The lockdown stopped that kind of transmission.
People have adjusted to the new rules. Most people I saw today were wearing masks. Many of those were fabric. Individuals understand the necessity of social distancing, even if their habits of space utilization sometimes overrule caution.
What the lockdown couldn’t stop was travel. San Felipe was the one pueblo to have a high incidence of coronavirus. [3] I never saw any explanation, like the ones provided for the outbreak on Navajo lands. I suspect the cause was their gas station on the main highway between Albuquerque and Santa Fé
Reopening means tourists passing through Española on their way elsewhere. The gas station convenience stores and fast food restaurants are the ones most vulnerable to people traveling while ill. They’re more likely to stop at the big box for supplies than the local stores.
People who work for businesses that serve outsiders have entered a more dangerous time, while the rest of us face the possibility of catching the virus from one of them before they feel ill.
Sources:
1. Jamie Ross. "Fourteen States Record Highest-Ever Weekly COVID-19 Infection Rate, Says Report." The Daily Beast website. 9 June 2007.
2. Wikipedia. "2020 Coronavirus Pandemic in New Mexico." Updated daily.
3. Dan Boyd. "Tribes Feeling Brunt of Coronavirus Impact in NM." Albuquerque Journal website. 14 April 2020.
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