Local restaurants and retail establishments are not the only businesses in South Brunswick feeling the sting of the COVID-19 outbreak. Healthcare businesses like chiropractors, dentists, and other specialists are struggling, as well, as patients cancel appointments and business has slowed to a trickle. In response, many are laying off support staff or cutting their hours. Others have been forced to close temporarily despite still having to pay so-called fixed costs like rent and insurance.
We visited the Franklin Park Stop and Shop last night and, as expected given that we all need supplies while we shelter in place to protect ourselves and our community from COVID-19 infection, found empty shelves in the bread, water, and paper goods aisles. However, the store was fairly well stocked with other supplies — plenty of produce and snacks, lots of yogurt and a decent amount of milk available, but the panic buying seems to be continuing.
This is a short post on how local restaurants are managing. As I hear back from others, I’ll update.
We’ve entered a surreal moment in our history. Faced with a virus that is spreading and that could potentially mutate and become even more deadly than it has been to date, we have locked ourselves away in our homes as a necessary precaution, but one that will have potentially devastating consequences for our economy.
This annual journal was waiting at my house when we got home from Savannah. It contains a poem I wrote at the request of the editor, Gert Coleman. (I wouldn’t have centered the poem, but that was their choice.)
My latest column from The Progressive Populist:
The poor health of American capitalism is being exposed by a virus that no one expected and no one seems prepared to address. As the COVID-19 virus, also known as the Coronavirus, spreads in the United States, it’s growing increasingly clear that the economic and health-care deficiencies we have in this country will limit our ability to combat it.
As the economics writer Anand Giridharadas tweeted out in March, the “Coronavirus makes clear what has been true all along. Your health is as safe as that of the worst-insured, worst-cared-for person in your society. It will be decided by the height of the floor, not the ceiling.”
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Hank Kalet 