Student priorities were made obvious on the night of Tuesday 18 August, following the announcement that the entire country would return to Level 4 for the first time in 477 days.
Queues outside of Leith Liquor stretched all the way to the street, with students reporting that the inside of the store was a scene of “absolute carnage”, comparing it to videos of American Black Friday Walmart sales. Grad student Mikayla, just out to get her car, overheard a bevvy-toting breatha announce that “they’re out of everything. It’s all gone.”
Photos of Henry’s and Superliquor showed that there were similar crowds at other liquor stores.
Inside the froth, students huddled closely together, jostling for lockdown “essentials”, despite Ashley Bloomfield’s pleas for everyone to socially distance and avoid crowds. Similar scenes were evident at vape shop Shosha, which saw a line stretching down the block, and other liquor stores outside of studentville. A screenshot sent to Critic by a DeliverEasy driver showed that over 900 drinks had been ordered through the delivery service in the late hours of Tuesday.
But it wasn’t just students. A commenter on Reddit saw the photo of Leith Liquor’s line, and described watching a suit-wearing businessman, somewhere in his late 50s, walk out of the store in a hurry. He had picked up six bottles of bourbon, and was transporting them in a bag designed to hold wine bottles.
Supermarkets, still open during Level 4, will continue to stock piss of all varieties — just not spirits.