Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

[reymann]

it's been the same way with the save marts in fresno, the higher volume stores are better stocked where as the lower volume stores continue to be bare.

[Alpha8472]

I have experienced the Supermarket Sweep at Walmart near closing time. I arrived shortly before closing and a female employee who I would describe as a cheerleader was encouraging customers to run inside before the doors closed. It was a mad dash inside as people raced around with shopping carts throwing everything into their carts like crazy.

I have fond memories of that classic TV game show. I am watching Supermarket Sweep on YouTube right now.

Walmart does not want to stay open later due to shoplifting concerns. The stores that open the latest get hit with mobs of shoplifters. This is especially true in lower income areas where many Walmart stores are located.

Pharmacies have reduced hours, but at pharmacies that have the discounted drug lists business is booming. Closing time is a mad rush as every single procrastinator shows up and tries to fill prescriptions at the last minute. Busy pharmacies should expand their hours again. Pharmacy employees are overwhelmed. There are not enough work hours in the day to get things done. It really does not save money to cut pharmacy hours. In fact, if the pharmacy is open later you would get more prescriptions filled rather than turning customers away.

[mjhale]

I have to wonder if some of the lower and low volume stores that aren't seeing a lot of restocking activity will sunset once the economy starts to reopen. From the descriptions here grocers are obviously focusing on their better stores in terms of sales and traffic volumes. Of course this creates an issue when the grocery nearest to you is low volume and doesn't have anything. That forces you to go to a busier store when you are supposed to stay at home and not expose yourself to large groups of people. I can't deal with the crowds on a normal basis so I had a couple of grocery stores I'd hit if I didn't want to be up at the crack of dawn to shop. Now those stores seem to get less restocking activity and have odd out of stocks that the much busier location in the same chain is experiencing.

[mjhale]

I have experienced the Supermarket Sweep at Walmart near closing time. I arrived shortly before closing and a female employee who I would describe as a cheerleader was encouraging customers to run inside before the doors closed. It was a mad dash inside as people raced around with shopping carts throwing everything into their carts like crazy.

I have fond memories of that classic TV game show. I am watching Supermarket Sweep on YouTube right now.

Walmart does not want to stay open later due to shoplifting concerns. The stores that open the latest get hit with mobs of shoplifters. This is especially true in lower income areas where many Walmart stores are located.

Pharmacies have reduced hours, but at pharmacies that have the discounted drug lists business is booming. Closing time is a mad rush as every single procrastinator shows up and tries to fill prescriptions at the last minute. Busy pharmacies should expand their hours again. Pharmacy employees are overwhelmed. There are not enough work hours in the day to get things done. It really does not save money to cut pharmacy hours. In fact, if the pharmacy is open later you would get more prescriptions filled rather than turning customers away.

The Walmart nearest me is pandemonium on a good day. Now with the urgency to buy anything you see and might want someday this Walmart is like a mad rush on limited hours. Aside from the normal crowds this store attracts the other problem is that Walmart had limited space to expand the store when they converted into a Supercenter. The only expansion they built on the store was a grocery backroom, the small dairy coolers and the small deli. The actual grocery aisles, meat coolers and pharmacy were built into the old clothing section of the store (this store was originally a pylon store). The rest was squeezed together to fit the remainder of the store. The only "classic" sized Supercenters near me are 20-30 minutes drive. Needless to say I've been skipping Walmart unless I can get there right at 7 AM when they open.

Regarding the pharmacies, if they do not want to stay open for customers late due to theft or other issues maybe they should keep the pharmacy staff after the store itself has closed to continue to fill prescriptions and work on other duties. You could clear through some of the volume without interruptions from customers. But it seems that the large pharmacy chains want to nickel and dime everything now and run on the leanest staff as possible. Seems like a hypocritical stance to me. Run on a shoestring but still claim you are there for everyone's health. You stress out the staff, stress out the customers, force people to work or visit the store when their physical condition may not be the best. I may be off base here so correct me if I'm wrong please.

[Alpha8472]

I totally agree that supermarkets and pharmacies should expand their hours to reduce overcrowding during their limited hours. Stores that close pharmacies early lose customers to the few 24 hour pharmacies.

Vulnerable customers such as the elderly want to visit stores either early in the morning or later at night to avoid crowds. Hours should be expanded again.

[storewanderer]

Went to Safeway again tonight. Dairy has been restocked fairly well, still hundreds of outs, concentrated around branded cheese (all the store brand was back), juices, and butters. Also zero Yoplait Yogurt in any flavor but most other yogurt was back.

Produce seems to be a work in progress but at this point many more items were in stock, albeit refrigerated items in small supply. It appears they have arranged for an alternate supplier to bring produce in. Multiple brands of bananas were present (Dole and Del Monte) and there was a pallet of produce boxes out on the sales floor with shipping labels on it that were obviously not from a Safeway distro center.

[SamSpade]

I made a few updates based on Google news updates to my list:

Bolded are new or updated cases.

Kroger - 3 in a Nashville Kroger
1 in Colorado Springs King Soopers
1 in Portland Fred Meyer
1 in Skokie Mariano's

Albertsons - 1 in San Jose Safeway
2 in the Boise area Albertsons
1 in Escondido Albertsons
2 in Bakersfield area Albertsons
1 in New Providence ACME
2 in New England area Shaw's

Ahold Delhaize - 1 in Columbia Heights Giant-MD
1 in Scarborough Hannaford

Schnucks - 1 in St. Louis Schnucks

Whole Foods - 1 in San Francisco Whole Foods
1 in Austin Whole Foods
1 in Richmond, VA Whole Foods
1 in Washington DC Whole Foods

Trader Joe's - 2 in Metairie Trader Joe's
1 in Arlington Trader Joe's
1 in Delray Beach Trader Joe's
1 in Clarendon Trader Joe's
4 in NYC area Trader Joe's
1 in Bakersfield Trader Joe's
1 in Fairfield CT Trader Joe's

Publix - 1 in Boca Publix
3 in Jacksonville area Publix stores

ShopRite - 4 in NJ area ShopRite stores

H-E-B - 1 in San Antonio H-E-B Plus

Wegmans - 1 in Syracuse area Wegmans

WinCo Foods
2 in Tigard, Ore.
One in Oregon City
(source: OregonLive.com)

Unfortunately, Oregon sees its first COVID19 death of a grocery employee, a worker at the Whole Foods "Pearl District" (inner Portland) location.

Also, one more case of infection for "Hollywood" store.
https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/ ... itive.html

[TW-Upstate NY]

Was in a Price Chopper and two Hannaford stores earlier today. Huge surprise at the Chopper was they actually had toilet paper in decent quantity. The shelves weren't full but there was enough of multiple brands for everybody if they observed purchase limits. And if what I saw in all three stores is any indication, I'm thinking this meat situation is going downhill real fast. There were a decent amount of empty spaces in each store's meat case. Was able to get a nice bottom round at one Hannaford and the other one wasn't worth buying because it was very small. Can't ever remember seeing a roast being offered for sale weighing just a little over a pound. Guess the stores are trying to stretch whatever supply they have. Aside from the stray family pack of drumsticks, about the only chicken to be had anywhere was of the skinless variety and even there it wasn't that much to buy. There's also a Walmart right next to the Chopper and their website said this location had hand sanitizer available so I took a walk there. Long story short on that-out of stock (naturally) and I also saw that setup mentioned here about the entrance and exits. Why the heck do you block off and close an entire entrance and funnel inbound and outbound traffic on one side is beyond me. I shop at off peak hours so it really wasn't a big deal before 9:00 AM on a weekday but when the place gets crowded even with occupancy limits in place, I can see where this will create huge issues. Would make much more sense to have one side in and one side out but they probably don't want to station somebody at each door because they either don't have the staff for it or they don't want to pay two people to do that job.

[Brian Lutz]

Not sure how many cases that involves, but I do know that the Trader Joe's in Everett WA had to close for several days due to at least one infected employee. They have since reopened though.

[mbz321]

And if what I saw in all three stores is any indication, I'm thinking this meat situation is going downhill real fast.

It's no better a little further 'south' around the Philly area. Stores from Aldi to Costco seem to be getting in very little meat or poultry. Costco was even selling its 'rotisserie' chickens uncooked for $3.99 just to have something to fill up the case with. Wegmans has been a little better, but notable holes. I don't even bother with Walmart for groceries as the stores in my area are always atrociously stocked even pre-coronavirus. Surprisingly, the only place where I've been able to find both on a consistent basis is a franchised Grocery Outlet store if I get there on the right day.