All three major grocers in the city of Estevan are doing their part to help out those in need during this time of apparent social crisis.

Clifton's No Frills has elected to open an hour early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during this outbreak to give an opportunity for both the elderly and special needs to come and do their shopping in peace before things get busy.

Sobeys Canada is also planning on doing the same.

Starting on Friday, March 20 they will begin their, "Seniors Shopping Hour" and will devote the first hour of business in the day to the most vulnerable and those who require extra attention, particularly seniors.

Southern Plains Co-op will be getting in on the program as well, though a date has not been set at this time.

We spoke with Brian Enns from Southern Plains about how the mass influx of customers has affected business and their store's environment.

"There are quite a number of customers coming into the store and making purchases. It's busier than usual for this time of the year and right now we're doing the best that we can to get product in as fast as we can."

Enns said that it has been a race to keep their shelves stocked.

"As fast as we get a truck in, our employees are doing well and filling the shelves as quickly as possible and trying to make it as easy for our customers to shop(as possible)."

Luckily for the co-op they have not faced any of the hysteria seen in larger centres where people have gotten into physical altercations over non-perishables and toiletries.

"We had a meeting with our team and for those who feel uncomfortable coming into the store, or are in self-quarantine, we are going to be providing free grocery delivery to those individuals and hopefully we can make their life a little more comfortable."

He assures that they have never seen anything of this magnitude take place.

"We have our normal times of the year where you have an influx of shopping, that can be Christmas and Easter. This has sort of caught us off guard a little bit, we're working hard through the situation but again, it's not something that we're used to in our day-to-day that's for sure."

Enns wants the public to understand that they are doing their best to keep the shelves full and are sanitizing their facility regularly.