How has the lockdown changed us, as a people? How has seven weeks confined to the four walls of our house shaped our consciousness? No doubt we'll look back at this quarantine in a few years time and wonder how we all got through it. There's nothing wrong with admitting that all of this confinement is making us do strange things.
For instance, barbeque equipment. It's something we all appreciate on one of the ten or eleven days of summer that occur each year. But it's hardly an essential thing. Still that didn't stop scores of people from turning out not long after the crack of dawn for their chance to get their hands on the latest range of Lidl Special Buys that were unveiled. There was a lot of garden equipment and barbeque supplies hitting the market when Lidl stores opened today at 8am, and so there were huge queues.
AS a result, Irish social media is full of tired and dissatisfied people today.
Is there anything more Irish than people queuing at Lidl at 7:55 am in the pissing of rain for cheap garden furniture and BBQ’s 😂😂 #Lidl #IrelandLockdown pic.twitter.com/VHWLO3QLrF
— Conor McCaffrey (@Caff35) April 30, 2020
Never seen anything like the queues I witnessed at 7. 20am outside lidl this morning. I'm sure people camped there overnight, was like queueing for concert tickets. 4 stores later, half a tank of petrol wasted and still no garden furniture, home to bed I go 😭
— Ciara Lynch (@CiaraAmyLynch) April 30, 2020
@lidl_ireland disgraceful behaviour for that furniture this morning and allow a grown man take all of them after a lady had stood front of queue from 6.45 and staff allowed this. One man queued and before 8am all his "family" arrived and he put them into each trolley.
— louisekeely (@louisekeely) April 30, 2020
Stuck in traffic in Tuam at 7:45am caused by que of cars heading into @lidl_ireland for the BBQ special buy event. Absolute madness to see the que of people running the length of the side and back of the store 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/AyUR98FZeG
— Mark Beattie (@Beats9) April 30, 2020
Agreed. Huge socially distanced queues in the lashing rain ☔️ at 7.45am in Terenure @lidl #SpecialBuys must be very special indeed. https://t.co/oVPtuImhYr
— Orlaith Blaney (@orlaithblaney) April 30, 2020
This is madness. But freed of school runs and the pressures of attending work, we are suddenly liberated to queue up around sunrise for barbeque stands. It's nice to see social distancing being enforced, but it's also a surreal commentary on life at the moment.
