Customers are no longer pushing the carts at Astor Wines and Spirits in the East Village, it’s the staff.

Deemed an “essential business” by Governor Cuomo, liquor stores are allowed to stay open amid the coronavirus outbreak. Still, management recently made the decision to close foot traffic, an effort made in the hopes of keeping staff from getting sick.

Now, they’re only doing business online and by phone, either through pick up or delivery. Even so, this is the busiest Astor Wines and Spirits has been in its more than 50 years doing business.

“We’re busier than we were at Christmas. Currently, our next delivery date is April 1,” said Rob Fisher, the chief operating officer of the store. “Which is 10-12 days from now, usually were only 3 days out.”

Fisher says orders began to stack up as the city began to shut down. At first, he wasn’t sure if the influx was real.

“It was a shock to us in fact,” said Fisher. “The first day I thought something we thought there was a problem with the computer system … I think there was panic, people wanted to hoard.”

Where customers would normally be browsing the selection sit boxes upon boxes of orders, and a seemingly endless line of shopping carts waiting to be packed for delivery. Staff are here 12 hours a day trying to catch up, but with so many other New Yorkers out of work the staff here consider themselves lucky.

“It’s really a tumultuous time in the industry as a whole,” said Lorena Ascenios, the wine buyer for the business.

In fact Ascencios is doing more now than her job usually entails.

“I’m normally not involved in the operations aspect of it, but to tell you the truth I kinda like it,” said Ascencios.

Customers are happy too. Some weren’t sure if liquor stores would make the list of essential businesses allowed to operate amid the pandemic, but were relieved to find they could still get what they’re looking for.

“Fancy bottle of scotch for a friend of mine that just had his second kid, and loves scotch,” one customer told NY1.