Grocery Store, Empty-Handed
What to do when your debit card got declined during the pandemic?
There is nothing more embarrassing than to go out of a grocery store empty-handed. I remember when I got my first job, I promised myself I would never go hungry again. That I can buy whatever food I want. And yet here I am. Again. Standing in front of the sliding glass door of a grocery store. Wearing corporate sleeves with a tie, matched with black shiny leather shoes. Walking like a loser across the main road. So I could go back home. Empty-handed.
It was the 10th day of a 24-hour community lockdown in Jeddah due to the COVID-19 outbreak. People can only go out within a specified time frame to buy food and attend to their medical needs. I don’t have a car and spare cash, so I brisk walked 700 meters from my flat to the grocery store at a staggering heat of 1 pm.
In other countries, walking around the city seems to be perfectly normal. But not in Saudi Arabia. In a 2019 global survey by Statista, 63% of the country’s population owns, leases, or has access to at least one car. I belong to the 37% who can’t even pay for Uber. And I am an engineer.
I was wearing a slick and classy corporate attire at that moment. And I am supposed to have money. With that…
