He had been standing in the queue for over three hours.
It was late afternoon and the shop would be closing soon. A whisper had come down the line that it too had run out of corned beef, but it was only a rumour. It was probably started by unscrupulous types who just wanted to reduce the queue to improve their own chances. He wouldn’t be surprised. The shortage had been going on across the country for over a week at this point and things had been getting ugly. There had been TV reports showing scuffles and even fights over the last few cans on supermarket shelves. Now, it was the smaller shops, like this one, that people were finding still had a small number of tins left, although these were usually more expensive.
Not that the price was stopping the rush. He had heard that the black market sales were going through the roof. None of this was surprising. Just the thought of going for more than a week or two without a corned beef sandwich was enough to drive some people crazy.
Nobody knew for sure, but it had something to do with a sea container shipment capsizing mid-ocean somewhere on route from Brazil.
He and those around him saw the queue in front breaking up and wandering off. The shop had closed. He checked the time, noting that they’d shut twenty minutes early. This was becoming common, now.
Closing up as soon as the last tin was taken off the shelf… for safety reasons.