Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

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storewanderer
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

Bagels wrote: November 17th, 2020, 11:06 pm I stopped at both a Ralph’s and Albertsons nearest me tonight. The Ralph’s was very low on paper products, and the Albertsons had half the stock it did over the weekend. The remaining stock of Mexican toilet paper, which was selling for a nickel each, is back at 99c.
I don't understand why they didn't take all that imported toilet paper and just use it as a store supply. Is it that bad? I kept the ones I got as souvenirs.

Moving the price up for 5 cents to 99 cents would appear to be a questionable move regarding price gouging laws. I guess if they marked the 5 cents as a sale and kept is posted as regularly 99 cents it would not be a violation as it would just be calling off the sale and putting it back to regular price which is a normal course of activity.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: November 17th, 2020, 11:18 pm
Bagels wrote: November 17th, 2020, 11:06 pm I stopped at both a Ralph’s and Albertsons nearest me tonight. The Ralph’s was very low on paper products, and the Albertsons had half the stock it did over the weekend. The remaining stock of Mexican toilet paper, which was selling for a nickel each, is back at 99c.
I don't understand why they didn't take all that imported toilet paper and just use it as a store supply. Is it that bad? I kept the ones I got as souvenirs.

Moving the price up for 5 cents to 99 cents would appear to be a questionable move regarding price gouging laws. I guess if they marked the 5 cents as a sale and kept is posted as regularly 99 cents it would not be a violation as it would just be calling off the sale and putting it back to regular price which is a normal course of activity.
The shelf price is 99c, although there was various red “Manager’s Special” stickers - the most recent being 20/$1.

I assume they had just wanted to get rid of them... quality is poor, the rolls are pretty small and the bathrooms use the industrial toilet paper (those huge rolls that aren’t precut).
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Bagels »

I returned to the same two stores tonight: Ralphs is now completely out of paper products, whereas Albertsons (which does much lower volume.... truthfully, I don't think many people even know the store exists) has about 50% stock.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by CalItalian »

Was in Vons (Corona-Temescal Valley), Ralphs (Menifee), Albertsons (Lake Elsinore) on Wednesday 11/18. All three were virtually out of all toilet paper. None of the three had any paper towels. Both the Vons and Albertsons got rid of the Mexican toilet paper ages ago. I was in the same Vons on Tuesday and they had some toilet paper including the Fab 5 special, Cottonelle (24 roll equivalent) for $6.99. The Vons mentioned is currently in the middle of a remodel and they've been doing great restocking with a special crew but they told me Wednesday the warehouse hasn't delivered any paper products in the last couple of days.

CVS (Lake Elsinore-Canyon Hills) was putting out all their toliet paper and paper towels from the stockroom on Tuesday early eve while I was there and it was completely stocked. Came back Wednesday early eve and maybe 20% was left.

Cleaning products are also disappearing like crazy. Water is also getting nearly cleaned out, again.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by jamcool »

This is what happens when you talk about lockdowns and curfews.... which do absolutely nothing to control a virus. Ask Europe and the UK.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

jamcool wrote: November 19th, 2020, 8:24 am This is what happens when you talk about lockdowns and curfews.... which do absolutely nothing to control a virus. Ask Europe and the UK.
People are rightfully concerned. At this rate there is no telling when the restrictions will get tougher or how much notice people will be given. Look at the post I made in a NM thread where stores are being suddenly closed for 2 weeks over 4 positive cases, and the stores that have no cases and stay open have very low capacity limits. It is time to stock up and be prepared to not be able to easily go to the store for a couple weeks...

I don't know why, but for some reason if I go to the grocery store at 10 PM when there are only about 5 customers and 5 employees inside, somehow, the virus is going to mutate more and put me at a greater risk than if I go to the grocery store at 1 PM when there are 100 customers and 50 employees there. I don't know how it works but supposedly it is "the Science." That seems to be what these curfew orders are implying.

Oh wait, I forgot, COVID comes from bats. Perhaps due to 10 PM to 5 AM being the hours of most darkness that is the time we are at most risk to come into contact with bats. So we need the curfew to keep ourselves away from the bats that give COVID. That is it.

Well so far the California curfew that is going into effect would not mandate grocery stores closed at 10 PM from how I am reading it, at least. Not sure about the Ohio curfew though and what its impact is for late night grocery shopping.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by reymann »

double whammy for stores with panic buying and holiday shopping going on. grocery stores might get completely wiped out right before thanksgiving at this rate.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Alpha8472 »

A curfew is not a solution to these problems. However, I do see some ridiculous scenes at bars and "nightclubs." In California, bars are required to be closed unless they serve food. Outdoor dining is allowed. However, these bars and nightclubs have instead turned their parking lots or outdoor patios into outdoor dance clubs or outdoor bars. I see insane amounts of unmasked drunk people dancing inches away from each other. I believe that these places are where the COVID cases are coming from.

The government should not trouble itself trying to shut down stores early. If stores are open later, then people can shop at times when it is much less crowded. If they want to stop bars and nightclubs from packing people together, then they need to come right out and enforce capacity limits. Curfews do not do a thing for packed bars and nightclubs.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

reymann wrote: November 19th, 2020, 8:34 pm double whammy for stores with panic buying and holiday shopping going on. grocery stores might get completely wiped out right before thanksgiving at this rate.
Let's hope the stores are prepared for this and are going to keep their shelves replenished more quickly than last time. I do think we will see some improvement this time. Some of the items folks over-bought back in the Spring, they are likely still overstocked on. I expect many canned goods will fall into this category. I am surprised the paper products didn't fall into this category.

The item I am currently noticing issues on but only at some stores: frozen foods. This one is interesting. That didn't seem to get hit so hard last Spring. Real thin at Wal Mart. At Trader Joe's in Reno last night the frozen aisle was almost empty on the entire side with the ready to heat entree food (asian food, mexican food, italian food, frozen pasta, Indian food, etc.)- the dessert part was shallow but not explicitly empty.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Alpha8472 »

I have heard from friends who work for Walmart that Walmart in recent weeks has started laying off employees. Walmart is going into full on cost cutting mode. They hired tons of employees when the pandemic started. Now the bean counters at Walmart's corporate office are freaking out over the excessive cost of employee payroll.

They started firing people for minor attendance issues again. There is an attendance point system that they use for lateness. They are searching for any reason to fire people. This supposedly will cut costs and save the company money. Walmart is already suffering from understaffing and the aisles are not getting restocked. The few employees left are overworked and overwhelmed. People are quitting left and right. Cash register lines are longer than ever and Walmart is firing cashiers.

Walmart is also locking up many items in glass cabinets. You cannot even find an employee to get a key to unlock those cabinets. Walmart is losing so many potential sales due to that.

Walmart is way too obsessed with cutting employee costs. This will only frustrate customers with long lines and out of stock merchandise. You cannot expect to run a business like this. You will drive many of your customers to other stores. Walmart will lose business in the long run.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on November 20th, 2020, 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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