Panic Buying Hitting Costco and Big Box Retailers

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We have the same system exactly at our farm. Laughing at our granddaughter, who was telling her mom on the phone (in California) how we do our water and how it works well.
Telling our daughter in Seattle to stop sending me photos of empty water shelves in the grocery store, and to order a Berkey. I guess they're backordered.
 
Morgan101 said:
I still have not seen any evidence of panic buying. Did my routine shopping Friday at Wally World. Shelves were fully stocked, including TP, store wasn't overly crowded. Maybe we are just lucky. I picked up some extras just to add to the supply. Focused a little more on things my son would eat. If we were quarantined tomorrow I would not foresee a problem. My wife has been staying close to home. She is in the Extremely High Risk category.
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The paddocks that have the most sheep is where all the panic is happening.
 
I went out today to pick up some bargains. I was quite surprised that the stores were pretty empty (of people). Of coarse, I went to a town I don't normally go to and it is mostly a summer tourist town, but it was still much more quiet than I expected it to be. I wasn't bumping into anyone, which was a huge bonus and the traffic was tame. At WM you could've shot a cannon thru there and not hit anyone. But, when I went to checkout, there were only 2 cashiers open with the rest being the self checkouts. Grrrrr! I only got a few things there. I noticed that the toothpaste isle looked more empty than I have ever seen it. Other areas that were picked thru were baking goods, pasta, liquid hand soap, and the surface cleaner isle. Nothing was really sold out (that I noticed). Nobody had huge overflowing carts. There was no line at the deli, which was unusual.

I went to Aldi and other than not having any of the giant bails of TP, everything else seemed like normal. You could still get TP, just not the 30 pk bails. They still had big stacks of water and everything else, no problem.

I went to another store and got my sale priced items and they too were unusually void of people. In that store I noticed bleech was a big seller, although they still had some on the shelf.....and at clearnace price too. Canned soup was on sale and I was amazed that the shelves were fully stocked b/c it was a good sale. So, folks stock up on pasta, but not soup?

I went home around 5pm, and there weren't a whole lot of folks at restaurants, but it was pretty early. Traffic was calm even though the weather was fine. It was a little strange, especially since there has not been a case reported in my area or anywhere even close. However, it was nice not having to fight the crowds. Since I got home I have been paying attention to traffic in front of my house, which is not ever what I'd call heavy, but can be somewhat steady. It has been really quiet. I think folks around here are staying home as much as possible. I'll have to pay attention to that from here on out and see if that still holds true over the weekend.
 
angie_nrs said:
... It has been really quiet. I think folks around here are staying home as much as possible. I'll have to pay attention to that from here on out and see if that still holds true over the weekend.
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We shall see.
My Mrs can stand maybe 3 days tops.
There could be The Black Plague, Scarlet Fever, Smallpox, and Atilla The Hun, out there but she's going out.
We have enough of everything here to make it a month easy. Don't matter.

Just can't find it in my heart to lock her out of the house :rolleyes:.
 
Amish Heart said:
We have the same system exactly at our farm. Laughing at our granddaughter, who was telling her mom on the phone (in California) how we do our water and how it works well.
Telling our daughter in Seattle to stop sending me photos of empty water shelves in the grocery store, and to order a Berkey. I guess they're backordered.
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Berkey can't ship into California, it's illegal. You'd have to smuggle one in.
 
Redhorse said:
What on Earth do the commies have against Berkey? :rolleyes:
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How dare you!, have something to purify water to drinking-level standards!
LividConsciousCondor-size_restricted.gif

You're supposed to be dependent on us for that!
 
Would never send one to granddaughter's mama. She's a drunk druggie. She's in California. Was telling daughter in Seattle they should have one instead of trying to buy bottled water, which they are out of. Don't know what Seattle's rules are, they are pretty commie, too. Daughter in Seattle just texted me that they're telling people to stay home. All schools closed. She's not prepared. But I did send her some masks, Tylenol, and flu meds.
 
I'm getting spooked over the economic decline. I went to order some more stuff from Walmart but most everything I looked at was marked out-of-stock and some had been changed to in-store-purchase only. I think I will drive to the local little town and pick up a few things and draw some money out of the bank there. I'll put the money in the Bank of Mason Jar.
 
hiwall said:
I'm getting spooked over the economic decline. I went to order some more stuff from Walmart but most everything I looked at was marked out-of-stock and some had been changed to in-store-purchase only. I think I will drive to the local little town and pick up a few things and draw some money out of the bank there. I'll put the money in the Bank of Mason Jar.
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Our neighbor was over there Monday and said Wal-Mart was pretty bare. We were in Socorro today picking up prescriptions when the announcement was made that 2 cases were confirmed in Socorro county and Wal-Mart filled up quick. Canned meats were gone along with toilet paper, tissues, bleach, beans, rice, vit C, paper towels/plates and bottled water. I'm sure there was more but I wasn't really looking for anything but the tissues. All this rain has my allergies flaring up.
 
The wife went to the store today and got everything on the list except baked beans. I need to stop by the bank before the bug hits here and get some "clean" cash. I've been arranging the pantry to gain better access and storage.
 
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Sorry about the allergies, Terri.
I really should get more water purifiers for the house, but my mother still doesn't like the "taste". I think it's psychological. The filters still don't get our water fully clean.
I wonder if corona-virus is why some of the shower products are out of stock at Lowes & HomeDepot. Stuff is probably made in China.
 
My wife was in the Aldi near us yesterday, and they were out of toilet paper. Things are starting to tighten up around here, and people are starting to panic. There are confirmed cases, and it seems to be spreading through the schools.
 
So my wife went to Walmart last night [not to buy these specific products] and said the TP, Lysol, hand sanitizer, etc. aisles were absolutely barren. Then she want to one of the larger grocery stores closer to our home and the shelves were all fairly well stocked. Apparently the panic shoppers around here also want the lowest prices possible or are using fit cards or something.

Although the fun part is the commercials. There is an auto dealership offering a package of TP and a bottle of hand sanitizer with every car purchase and a gun shop offering one roll of toilet paper with ever gun sold.
 
hiwall said:
I'm getting spooked over the economic decline.
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I'm the opposite. I wish I could put a ton on cash into the stock market right about now. After this blows over (I suspect by late summer-ish) the market will soar. Other than CV, there's not much holding it back. I don't think this could've happened at a better time for DJT.
Caribou said:
I need to stop by the bank before the bug hits here and get some "clean" cash.
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I paid with cash yesterday and the cashiers didn't exactly seem thrilled about that. LOL! Too bad.....that's how I roll.

Sentry18 said:
So my wife went to Walmart last night [not to buy these specific products] and said the TP, Lysol, hand sanitizer, etc. aisles were absolutely barren. Then she want to one of the larger grocery stores closer to our home and the shelves were all fairly well stocked. Apparently the panic shoppers around here also want the lowest prices possible
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I noticed the same thing yesterday. One store would be picked thru on certain items (even though they weren't on sale), yet going into another store those items would be front and center (and maybe even be on sale). I swear some folks must see someone put something in their cart and think......oh yeah, gotta get me some of that. It leaves me scratching my head, even though I'm not supposed to touch my noggin.😷

Right now, hubs has his usual seasonal allergies. I told him everyone around him is likely to freak out due to his sniffles and sneezing. I'm sure many others are getting their seasonal allergies too so maybe many of them are staying home b/c they don't want to be shunned in public. He's taking his OTC allergy meds, so hopefully he'll see improvement by Tuesday b/c I told him I want to make a trip to the local tavern for St. Patty's Day.🍺
 
Patchouli said:
Kids said tp was sold out at wm but other grocery store had some.
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I went to our local small grocery store today. Plenty of parking spaces to choose from. (which I love)
This past weekend all cough-drops and cold remedy stuff was wiped clean
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.
Today, ALL of it was completely restocked. God bless capitalism!
The store was grinning bigtime
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.
I didn't even look at the TP because I only use about 2 rolls per week (I guess you could say I don't give much of a
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).

On to the critical measurement of the panic level... beer.
Beer stocks were down about 25%.
To translate, that's about .01% of hurricane level demand.
We're good :thumbs:.
 
A friend of a friend just got back from Seattle with signs of COVID, and a few other diseases. Called the ER and they told her to stay home. Wife, "If she wasn't okay why would the ER tell her to stay home? The paper said they were taking extreme cautions." Me, "Hello, I may have contracted a highly contagious and deadly disease, what should I do? 'Stay away from me!'"
 
Well someone needs to fix the fence because the sheep have gotten out. Went to the store in my small town of about 1k. All but 3 packages of tp were gone. People came from 45 miles away because Waldo world was out and so was Albertsons. Maybe I should open a tp store?
 
The fixation on TP I find completely baffling.
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You can't eat it, you can't drink it, you certainly can't smoke it.
Send me into the woods with one roll of paper towels, I'll be good for a week.
I just don't get it, except there must a lot of people that that only breathe Facebook.
We practice panic down here yearly.
Water, gasoline, food, beer, yes.
TP? No.
 
I like TP. I dont consider it a luxury. I have a lot of it. No I didn't buy it all last week. I just rotate through a larger than normal stock. Like a sensible person that thinks there may be a shortage of something they like in the future. I have taken note of the TP panic buying. Next time I will buy even more of things that make tp necessary as a trade item. Like food. If you have no food tp is not necessary in the first place. People should buy more food.
 
hiwall said:
We went to our local small town today. Bought a bunch of stuff (a lot of comfort food :) ) and now we will stay home in isolation.
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That's what we are doing. I don't want the kid to get sick. Fevers do bad things with her heart.
 
CrackbottomLouis said:
I like TP. I dont consider it a luxury. I have a lot of it. No I didn't buy it all last week. I just rotate through a larger than normal stock. Like a sensible person that thinks there may be a shortage of something they like in the future. I have taken note of the TP panic buying. Next time I will buy even more of things that make tp necessary as a trade item. Like food.
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Yes, we learned years ago.
I don't think anyone down here has kept less than a month's worth on hand for years.

You can't do that with beer though:confused:.
 
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