Couldn't keep distance from other people, after all. Two stores near each other did not co-ordinate their strategies. The more upscale one opens at 7 am. Hardly anyone there yet; wide empty aisles, all sparkling clean. Me, the only old bandit in mask and gountlets. Made out like one, so that's all right. Out in 15 minutes.
The cheaper store, where most pensioners shop, doesn't open till 8 am, by which time a goodly crowd was gathered outside. Narrow entryway filled with too-big shopping carts; narrow aisles with pillars perfectly placed to impede traffic, extra display racks and bins and and tables all over the place; insufficient room at the checkouts and a longish lineup. No way to keep any distance!
All the same, we were home by 9:30, with a stop at the pharmacy for prescriptions and overpriced Kleenex and the beer store.
Might not suffer too much privation, after all.