On 16 April 2020, Barbados assigned supermarket shopping periods according to the first letter of each customer’s surname. People in the C-to-F group were allowed to shop from 8 to 11 a.m.; some arrived at 6:30 and waited as long as three hours. Customers in the later R-to-Z group began assembling well before their afternoon slot.
The rule was intended to reduce numbers inside stores, but it compressed demand into three-hour windows and produced spiralling lines through car parks and onto roads. Six-foot markers, masks and sanitising helped maintain order. An attribute normally irrelevant to shopping—a surname—temporarily determined both one’s place in line and one’s permitted time to buy food.