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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jamcool
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by jamcool »

Most of it is North American manufactured. We have a panic brought on by the Mediots and those of a certain political persuasion to scare people into a thinking this is the next Spanish Flu.
It may be time for retailers to start limiting purchases of some of these items
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Alpha8472 »

I was at Sam's Club yesterday and an employee told a man that he could only get 2 packages of water. Many items have a quantity limit now. There is way too much panic and hoarding.

There may be too much panic over the coronavirus, but it is still a concern. Yes, elderly people die at a much higher rate than the flu. I would feel bad if grandparents or elderly neighbors caught this from me and died. Even for younger people who do catch it and recover, many of them are left with lung damage. Having shortness of breath for the rest of your life would be a quality of life issue. You cannot even walk quickly without gasping for breath. That is like a 30 year old person with the lungs of a 90 year old. Then even a cold or flu in the future could mean that you have to be put on a ventilator in a hospital to keep from suffocating to death.

Pulmonary fibrosis (scar tissue in the lungs) does not go away.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on March 14th, 2020, 12:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by veteran+ »

So far I have not seen any crowds or significant out of stocks at Ralphs, Food4Less or Target and CVS in San Diego.

8-)
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

Hopefully, this is relatively short-lived but no one has the answer to that right now. But when it does eventually calm down, people will likely have a LOT of these items stocked up at home which means they won't need to buy more anytime soon which will only further slow down the economy and in the long run hurt the retailers and manufacturers of these products.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: March 13th, 2020, 9:32 am Hopefully, this is relatively short-lived but no one has the answer to that right now. But when it does eventually calm down, people will likely have a LOT of these items stocked up at home which means they won't need to buy more anytime soon which will only further slow down the economy and in the long run hurt the retailers and manufacturers of these products.
It might, but not necessarily. Some people may not be able to stock up now with the shortages of some items (or generally are stocked in advance), so they will have enough but by the time supplies return will need to refill at that point.

Also, even if sales drop off a bit in the future, the larger than usual sales now will offset some of that (basically getting the same total sales by the end of the year, just in a different pattern than would normally occur).
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by klkla »

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".
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Bagels »

veteran+ wrote: March 13th, 2020, 8:31 am So far I have not seen any crowds or significant out of stocks at Ralphs, Food4Less or Target and CVS in San Diego.

8-)
Wow. In Irvine, it's pure hysteria. Parking lots are full (at one Ralphs, police were directing potential shoppers to park at the adjacent park) and lines are out the door. I couldn't even find a space at the Lake Forest Albertsons. They probably haven't seen that much business since it was a Lucky!
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Brian Lutz »

Another thing to consider: Are stores able to keep their staff? I occasionally get emailed specials from QFC, but tonight it appears they sent out an email to their lists saying that they were hiring with immediate openings available. That seems a little unusual; I know employee turnover is generally high at grocery stores but it sounds like it may be higher than usual right now.

As for the stores, I think a lot of the major panic shopping happened here about a week and a half ago, so the stores seem more crowded than usual with some items low or out of stock, but the nearby Fred Meyer didn't seem too much busier than normal when we went on Wednesday afternoon.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by klkla »

Brian Lutz wrote: March 13th, 2020, 8:17 pm As for the stores, I think a lot of the major panic shopping happened here about a week and a half ago, so the stores seem more crowded than usual with some items low or out of stock, but the nearby Fred Meyer didn't seem too much busier than normal when we went on Wednesday afternoon.
Here in SoCal the panic buying started after Trump's speech. Vons seemed normal until last night and there was no parking at the store on Sunset & Virgil at 7 PM. All the parking spaces were taken and about twenty cars were parked illegally wherever the could squeeze in.
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Re: Coronavirus Fears and Empty Supermarkets

Post by Super S »

Panic buying seems to be stepping up in my area. Both Washington and Oregon have closed schools until late April. I drove by Fred Meyer today and the parking lot was full, almost like Black Friday. The parking lot at the Safeway across the street was also much fuller than usual as was Walgreens. It didn't help that we have a late-season chance of snow.

The governors of Oregon and Washington have ordered restrictions on events of over 250 people, effectively canceling many events that bring revenue to many areas, and I am wondering if we could soon see restrictions on large retail stores to control the panic buying.
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