Superstore keeps things moving

With the onset of the coronavirus quarantine, stores are completely running out of items that used to be available in large quantities.

Wasco Superstore is one of the businesses that has been able to stay open during the lockdown of nonessential businesses. They are essential because the store usually has a large quantity of much-needed items to sell during a regular year.

But this is not any regular year. The virus has affected this small business like so many others.

Upon entering the store, the customer is greeted personally by a clerk, who asks if there is anything you are looking for specifically because the newest guidelines indicate customers in stores should go in and out as quickly as possible without loitering or browsing. So, when Johanna Reyes asked if she could help find something specific, she explained it was because customers are not able to browse and walk around. A customer needs to get what he/she needs and leave.

Reyes is a Wasco resident currently attending the University of California, Davis. When classes closed, she returned to Wasco to be with family and began working at the Superstore. "I've worked here during summers," she said. "When I came home, I knew I would need to be doing something more than homework."

"I'm grateful to have a job."

The store, which is known for its enormous toilet paper pyramid in the center of the store, was completely out of it, as well as many other items usually in stock. "Hopefully, we will get a shipment either this afternoon or tomorrow," she said.

She mentioned that during the first week of quarantine, shoppers came in and board quantities of items such as toilet paper, water and disinfecting products. During the second week of the quarantine, customers still were coming in to grab as much as they could; however, "by the third week of the quarantine, we were limiting purchases to one package of these items per customer."

Wasco Superstore is located at 817 7th St., and they can be reached at 758-1856. The store hours are now 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.