Campus supermarket to remain open

For the time being, the Spar supermarket on campus will remain open, almost as usual. “We seek to keep all our shops open where possible, but that could change at any moment,” the owner, Erwin Binneveld, told us. However, the supermarket’s opening hours have been adjusted: 8am-6pm on Monday-Friday, and 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday.

It is extremely quiet inside the Spar supermarket on the Woudestein campus on Monday morning. There are only three customers and two members of staff inside the shop. Spar employee Sabrina is one of the latter. “Obviously, we didn’t hear until yesterday that students won’t be coming to campus anymore. As a result, we’re not sure at the moment what will happen, but we will remain open for the time being for people who work on campus or live in the halls of residence.”

Measures

However, on Friday, the day after it was announced that on-campus lectures and seminars had been cancelled, they did decide to revise the rosters. Staff on permanent contracts will keep most of their hours, but staff on flexible contracts (mostly students) will not. Normally, ten to twelve employees keep the supermarket up and running. Now there are only four of them.

In addition, the on-campus supermarket will be taking additional measures. For instance, the place will be cleaned more often, employees with cold symptoms have been asked to stay at home, and no more than one hundred people will be allowed inside the shop at any given time. “And obviously, we always wear gloves when dealing with fresh bread and baked products,” says Sabrina.

Judging from a quick tour of the supermarket, supplies are solid for now. “We haven’t really seen any hoarding,” says Sabrina. “At any rate, it wasn’t as bad here as it was at the other supermarkets around here. We have everything in stock and had regular deliveries today.” They even have toilet paper sitting on the shelves.