We've got it covered

This past Sunday was a bit stressful in our household.  My husband has been keeping a close eye on the coronavirus and decided we needed to get better prepared just in case.

Knowing that I have food stores in case of an emergency, we didn't need to pick up any extra food.

He was most concerned with getting some masks to wear on his train commute.  Thinking this would be an easy task, we asked a saleswoman at an AEON store (pronounced EE-on, a store similar to a Fred Meyer or Target) and she told us they were sold out.  A bit surprised, we headed to a pharmacy.  They were also sold out.  So was Don Quijote (a huge discount store that has everything under the sun - usually).  We went to 5 different stores and all of them were sold out.

We  headed home and tried to by some online.  But only private sellers had masks in stock on Amazon, with HUGE markups.  The most memorable one was a single box of 50 masks for ¥9,000/$82 USD!!!  Price gouging is so despicable, especially in times like these.

I reached out to the park moms for help in obtaining some masks.  The next morning I had a text telling me to go to Livin (a chain store part of Walmart).  By the time I got there, just  20 minutes later, all the boxes were gone.  There were still packages, but they only have 3, 5, or 7 masks per package and the store was limiting everyone to only 2 packages.  I bought two packages and continued on my way.  I spent ¥550/$5 for 14 masks.  I've heard that some stores are limiting their customers to only 1 box or package.

Later on I got a text from a different park mom - she was at a store that still had masks.  She was happy to buy me a box of 60 masks for ¥400/$3.65.  Another mom brought it to the school the next day.

Phew!  All that running around and craziness for a couple of masks.  I feel like we have enough as it is easy for us to reduce how much time we spend in crowded places.

I hope we will not have a need for these masks.  But it is better to be prepared than caught off guard.