Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

This is the place for general and miscellaneous posts on topics which might extend past the boundaries of any specific region. No non-grocery posts.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Bagels »

Most of the Albertsons nearby me are now completely out of stock on nearly all food items. One of the managers I'm chummy with told me that select stores may be closed indefinitely, given the lack of product and cost to re-stock. Scary times indeed.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by storewanderer »

I was in some CA Stores this afternoon/early evening and it is really crazy. Also noticed a number of sick people, coughing, panting, wearing masks, etc. Far more sick people than back in NV.

Safeway is disgustingly unprepared for what is happening with understaffed stores, more checkout lanes closed than open, and lines running halfway down the aisles at multiple locations I went into (does not look real good when only 3 of 7 registers are open). Someone (I am not sure if it was customers or employees) pulled a lot of boxes down from the sky shelves of overstock paper products and one Safeway was one of two stores I was in all day that had toilet paper in stock (more on that below). Customers in the Safeway stores are irate and the employees seem pretty short in attitude.

Raleys conditions really seemed to vary by store location but they were sure better staffed. Raleys in-stock situation was also quite a bit better, though I was in one location that had no milk. Save Mart conditions varied by location I went to as well, a couple locations were staffed well (almost every lane open) but the shelves were empty of numerous goods. One Save Mart I went into (hasn't been remodeled yet, so must be a low volume store) felt relatively "normal" and aside from outages on hand sanitizer, cleaning wipes, and certain paper products the place looked almost normal inside. There was no chaos, peaceful one checkout open and 4 self checkouts with steady traffic, etc. A Safeway near that Save Mart had lines going down the aisles with 3 checkouts and 4 self checkouts and literal chaos. The attitude of the employees in both Raleys and Save Mart seemed just fine.

It is going to be so tough for these stores to recover. I cannot even believe what I saw. These stores are almost going to have to start from scratch to get restocked. It will be like opening and stocking a new store.

One area of every store I went into looked curiously well stocked and "normal" - the pet food aisles. I hope people are not forgetting about their pets in this mess.

Back home in Reno late tonight I stopped off at Smiths. I couldn't stay there long because they had signs up (normal 24 hour store) "TEMPORARY STORE HOURS 6 AM to 11 PM." They had probably 3x the number of pallets being stocked for a usual Friday night (this store already usually has a ton of pallets being stocked). This store probably had 100 customers inside and was a trainwreck. Most of the aisles of canned goods, soap, drug, etc. were about 15% stocked at best. Pasta, paper products, liquid soap, and many cleaning items were 100% out of stock on the shelf (but some stuff on pallets waiting to be stocked). They had pallets of items to be stocked and many customers were helping themselves. One pallet had toilet paper. There was quite a gathering there. Woman with her kid standing in the aisle holding toilet paper and taking a picture of the kid, a person while I was paying who tried to buy two full cases of toilet paper and was stopped by the employee at self checkout before she could pay, and who knows what else.

After that mess I decided to go over to WinCo (normal 24 hour store) and see what was going on there. New signs up there which weren't there this morning saying the store will now closed from Midnight to 5 AM. Well past 11 PM they had 5 checkouts open with lines and this store too was quite a wreck inside (considering it was fully stocked this morning, quite a contrast) with outages very similar to Smiths.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Bagels »

I don't think anybody could've prepared for what has happened in recent days. Many of these stores were already struggling to attract help, and many were willing to offer as much overtime as employees wanted. The Ralphs near me limits the number of people under 16 working any given day, and it appeared that pretty much everybody under 16 working for them was there tonight. Dang, do I feel old!

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if various chains choose to use this opportunity to permanently close select underperforming stores, given the costs of running liquidation sales.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by rwsandiego »

I went to Fry's (DT Phoenix) and Safeway (McDowell Road) Friday evening. Both stores had plenty of fresh meat, milk, and bakery items. At both stores the entire toilet paper, tissue, and paper towel aisles were devoid of product. At Fry's, the pre-packaged bread aisle was pretty much cleared out, there were no eggs and dry pasta was mostly gone except for egg noodles and a couple packages of the Private Selections Italian pasta (which is what I wanted for a recipe). At Safeway there was a pretty decent variety of pre-packaged bread, but not a lot of bakery bread, maybe ten cartons of eggs, and virtually no dry pasta. Interestingly, there was plenty of pasta sauce, canned and fresh tomatoes, olive oil, and butter/margarine, so people apparently eat the stuff plain.

One of the recipes I'm making calls for frozen okra. I thought "who the heck but me uses frozen okra?" Well, Fry's had no frozen vegetables (including no okra) except for a couple packages of lima beans and green beans. Safeway had very low stock, but the culinary day was saved because they had several bags of frozen cut okra.

An article I read mentioned the average American uses 100 rolls of toilet paper per year (which is a lot). That would mean a family of four would go through eleven 36-roll packages in a year. Assuming the virus peaks in a month and trails off in two months and all toilet paper production and distribution stopped tomorrow (which it won't) two packages and a little less usage would do most families just fine. Also, I am wondering where these people are putting it all. There is not room in my 1200 square foot apartment for one Costco size pack, let alone five or six. I suppose the rolls could be used as pillows until they were used.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by architect »

In Texas, HEB is shifting their hours across the board to 8am-8pm to create time overnight for additional sanitation and restocking. In addition, employees and product are being pulled from some bakeries and delis to open up more staff for restocking/cashiering throughout the day. In some cases, outdoor queing lines are being created to limited the number of shoppers in the store at any given time.

Throughout their respective territories, Publix and Wegmans are also taking similar measures.

In DFW, Kroger seems to be doing a good job of restocking overnight, aside from the paper product shortages which have already been mentioned. Tom Thumb/Albertsons on the other hand has been a joke. Many locations have been essentially cleared of product.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Groceteria »

Harris Teeter is closing all stores at 9 starting tomorrow "to focus on cleaning, replenishment, and the well-being of our valued associates." It's not quite as crazy in my part of NC (yet) with outages mostly limited to bread, paper products, and disinfecting/cleaning supplies. But meat and frozen are starting to thin out.

Food Lion seems to be doing the best job of keeping things stocked around here (they even have limited amounts of toilet paper) while Lidl is pretty much running out of everything.

I have not braved a Walmart or a Costco.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by BillyGr »

Bagels wrote: March 14th, 2020, 2:07 am The Ralphs near me limits the number of people under 16 working any given day, and it appeared that pretty much everybody under 16 working for them was there tonight. Dang, do I feel old!
That may be one of the upsides to places where schools are closing for a time, as many of the rules on those under 18 and hours they work are more restrictive on school days.

That, combined with the fact that this seems to impact younger people less might help the stores fill gaps where other older employees get sick (at least somewhat).

Just to add to the stores - Price Chopper/Market 32 here in NY/VT/MA/CT/NH/PA sent out email today that they would close those stores normally open 24 Hours at 1am and reopen at 6am, again to allow more time for cleaning and stocking.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by klkla »

klkla wrote: March 13th, 2020, 5:26 pm Gelson's just announced that they will be closing their stores early until further notice. All stores except for the three former Mayfair's in WeHo, Hollywood and Silverlake will close at 9. The other three will close at 10.

The reason listed is "So we can stock our shelves".
They have altered their store hours again with all stores now closing at 8 except WeHo, Hollywood and Silverlake which will now close at 9.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Greggo »

As mentioned above, H-E-B has been hit hard. I’ve seen photos from stores across the state that have quite nearly been stripped clean. No meat, no veggies, no pasta sauce, no canned veggies and of course no paper products. They claim they started preparing a month ago and are in a good position to restock.

Meanwhile, Randalls here in Austin is still pretty stocked aside from meat, water and paper products. The staffing was horrid. Two cashiers working. Seven other registers closed. Stores are now closing at 11p instead of midnight or 1a.

And when I stopped by Sprouts they were out of bags. They had brought empty boxes to the front for customers to use but those were almost out, too.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by SamSpade »

Super S wrote: March 13th, 2020, 10:24 pmBoth Washington and Oregon have closed schools until late April
Oregon schools are only closed until April 1 at this time. Not trying to nitpick but trying to keep current.
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