Long lines, limited capacity don’t deter buyers at Lincoln Heights grocery store

As customers queued up outside the South Hill Trader Joe’s on Saturday morning, the chill was made more bearable by one reassuring thought.

Toilet paper.

It was only a rumor, but enough to entice at least one wavering customer to join a line that was growing every minute.

In the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, this is the new normal in Lincoln Heights. And it’s a new normal that could make it difficult for shoppers to maintain the 6 feet of social distance that officials have urged people to maintain.

To allow people inside without cramming them together, store managers have limited occupancy to 75 customers at a time.

Some are adjusting better than others.

“I guess we don’t have much choice,” said Gary, a middle-aged customer who didn’t give his last name but freely offered his thoughts on the root of all this inconvenience.

“I think it’s overblown,” Gary said. “A lot of it’s from the media, mostly TV.”

Others shrugged. Where else can you get cauliflower gnocchi and Green Goddess Dip?

A few feet away – 6, to be exact – Kristine Peters of Spokane stood patiently.

A regular Trader Joe’s customer, she’d never waited in line before, but welcomed the restrictions.

“I’m supportive of everything that they’re doing,” said Peters, who drove up from Eagle Ridge to buy a few things and then “hunker down.”

The daily inconveniences are tolerable, Peters said. “But it is concerning that some people are not taking it as seriously as they should.”

As the line of two dozen folks inched forward, three women moved toward the store, met the glances of those already in line and reconsidered.

Then someone mentioned the toilet paper rumor.

“OK, then,” said one woman, and they joined the line.

Inside, the store seemed a model of social distancing – that is until the toilet paper rumor could be verified.

“Toilet paper is in the back of the store,” said the mind-reading clerk in the produce aisle.

And so it was, white gold arranged in tall stacks.

“One per customer, please,” the sign read.

Not everyone can read, but the young man with three rolls in his cart surrendered two of them without incident.

Apart from the lines and the toilet paper, Trader Joe’s operated like most grocery stores in Spokane. Cleaning supplies were in short supply, as were rice, pasta and other basic ingredients.

Yet the good stuff was plentiful: frozen pizzas, chocolatey cats cookies and other goodies.

For some, that made all the difference.

“I just need a few things,” said Peters, who planned a relaxing weekend painting and FaceTiming with grandchildren.

“I see a silver lining in all of this,” she said.