Looking east from Statia, when sitting at Whitewall (fort) or the Botanical Gardens (national park), you can see across the channel to the island of St. Kitts. On a sunny day, it is a beautiful sight, sometimes topped with amazing cloud formations.
Apparently groceries are very expensive on St. Kitts and every week, ferries from SK come to Statia with boat loads to do nothing but grocery shop. The shoppers literally invade the few stores here and clean the shelves of most common items to the point where stuff is gone until the next shipment arrives.
The experience is most unsettling if you happen to be in the store when it happens. The ferries arrive at the harbor and they either walk, take taxi or have rides 
from locals to the stores. Masses of people enter the front door and shatter the peace. Items are packed into carts and fly off the shelves. Pushing and shoving to grab items is common and injury is possible. Nothing is left untouched. Items are then loaded onto truck, into barrels and crates and shuttled down to the ferries for the short ride back to St. Kitts.
It is a life threatening experience to be in the middle of. So much so, that most locals avoid the stores on those days. I've learned my lesson. Only had to experience that once before I learned. And I know shop the days before the St. Kitts shopping express arrives. Self preservation is a way of life on Statia.
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. 
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