Virus Inspired Hoarding

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Stay away from the big box stores, from Wally to Costco.

 

Here near ground zero, this has been going on for 2 weeks or more. But as of yesterday and today, Safeway has mountains of bottled water and nobody buying anymore.

 

Today (Tuesday) afternoon, my Safeway was at last calm and peaceful, parking lot half-full, normal checkout lines. All fresh meat and fish cases full to overflowing, same with produce and the bakery. Canned goods down by 1/2 to 2/3, with the stockers working hard. Eggs were out for the day, and TP is still not to be seen. That's it. There is no actual shortage of food whatsoever.

 

Since we were early on the 'panic' here, maybe most people have now bought enough. But the big boxes are still a little crazy.

 

Go to the big supermarket 'grocery only' chains, such as Safeway, in preference to all of the big boxes. It's way better there.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

When I get to a crowd, I don’t have to say “excuse me, please”. I just cough.

[bgavin]

My wife shops in an N95 mask and latex gloves... she gets lots of free space.
She also has severe seasonal allergies, so the cough helps clear the way as well.

I went with her yesterday to Safeway, took the Nikon, just to see the devastation.  I also wear the mask.
If somebody looks at us weird, I just say, "We're in the old age, high-risk bracket", so they grin and "understand."

Meat, Eggs (!), Dairy, Paper products and Pasta are bare shelves.. all gone.
Somebody is gonna be discarding a bunch of rotten eggs in a few weeks.
All the pasta is gone, but the pasta sauces are well stocked.

Booze and condoms are fully stocked.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Americans aren't the only ones in a panic:

[Alpo]

Boooo, hissssss, boooo.

[Subdeacon Joe]

24 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Boooo, hissssss, boooo.

 

I'm here all week.   Try the veal.  Remember to tip your waiter.

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

I got sent home from work to work at home.  (I was hoping for this.)   Stopped at Costco on the way home and won't go again for weeks.  There are far too many shoppers in the store.  They'd entirely restocked with water and bread.  Rice was available with a 1-bag per shopper limit with NO RETURNS.  Dried cereal was all gone as was beans and flour.  There was almost no canned meat and the frozen chicken was in short supply.  Gas prices are falling.  Sams Club was selling regular for  $1.559.  Too bad my CAS matches in April are cancelled.  Pulling the travel trailer would be inexpensive right now.

[bgavin]

Here in Sacramento, our WinCO market is still on "5 go in after 5 come out" status.
Dunno about COSTCO, as I don't even want to go there after seeing photos of the lines.

Safeway here is mostly stocked except meats, dairy, eggs, pasta and paper products.
They are running Senior hours now, where those over age 65 can get in 1 hour before the store opens to the general public.

I do notice that none of the customers except my wife and myself are wearing masks.
A few of the checkers have them, but the rest are open faced.

At 5pm tonight, I will take the Nikon down to the main stop light and see what kind of traffic there will be.
CA is "locked down" as of yesterday, so I'm curious about how much traffic there will be.