Coronavirus (COVID-19) Panic Buying?

[lovetravellingoz]

Indeed, I get the impression Aussies are too busy emptying supermarket shelves to go on holiday!
cheers skip

Not at the supermarkets I frequent. And at Costco, when don't shoppers here have full trollies?

I think it is more that hand sanitiser has a run on.

 

[opusman]

In addtion to redirecting staff to filling the larger then normal loads, there is not much point doing the picking when 50+% of the order has gone between the order being placed and it being picked.

Before they cancelled it delivery windows were over a week away. They could have easily done the picking for online orders over night, before the store opened.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Sounds like there's some co-ordinated hoarding going on.. When its known a store has supply, it seems to get "ransacked" (for a better term). How is this happening? is Facebook and twitter creating a scenario that COVID-19 is zombie flesh eating end of the world scenario? For the majority of the population, they'll be home with flu symptoms for a week or so, then back to being a productive member of society with bonus immunity.

 

[get me outta here]

Better not tell the rest of the world this, we’ll just keep it between ourselves. It’s starting to look like the Preppers may have been onto something:

U.S. Virus Plan Anticipates 18-Month Pandemic and Widespread Shortages
The 100-page federal plan laid out a grim prognosis and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government.

March 17, 2020
WASHINGTON — A federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers last week that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and could include “multiple waves,” resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system 100-page federal plan laid out a grim prognosis and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government..

 

[Himeno]

Before they cancelled it delivery windows were over a week away. They could have easily done the picking for online orders over night, before the store opened.

Do think about how many people would be available to work such shifts, and that major shift changes (that something like this suggestion would be) require at least 2 weeks notice.

Also, there are 3 pick windows per day, with - at least for the pick up only stores - up to 20 orders per window.
You are suggesting that stores fill up to 60 orders, in less time, with little to no available staff to do said picking.

 

[Julesmac]

Did the weekly shop yesterday. Basically no pasta at Coles, no loo paper, blah blah blah. Surprisingly, I haven't yet seen pads and tampons run out, and nappies seem to have been OK (but I haven't been paying close attention). The shopping centre I went to has a Coles, Woolies, and Aldi - I went there purposely in case Coles was out of anything I wanted. Had to buy a couple of things at Woolies (pumpkin - Coles was out of cut pumpkin, Woolies only had Jarrahdale and Butternut cut up - take my tip and don't roast Jarrahdale), and then I went to the independent butcher. I heard them telling another customer that the entire centre had run out of mince earlier that morning, and the butchers went through 50kg of mince in under an hour, as they were the only store with it! There were certainly limited choices at Coles, but I was able to buy some mince to put in the freezer.

I haven't gone overboard, but have been getting an extra pack of pasta and a tin of tuna here and there. I'm not super concerned, just getting a few extra things that I know we will be able to use over time, and we won't be throwing out. Also, I'm still on dinner duty after Mr Katie's shoulder surgery in January, and I want some easy meals up my sleeve for the coming weeks! (Tuna bake, spag bog, etc. It's an exciting taste adventure in the Katie household with me cooking)

MrMac is terrified I'm going to dust off the trusty tuna mornay I used to cook when we were first married. I accept it was pretty frightful....but he carried on so much I'm almost tempted to continue teasing

 

[JessicaTam]

But then those who now have the opportunity to actually buy needed goods have to pay a significant price. That method doesn't work for me.

$1 for the first one, $100 for the second.

 

[ja1]

just deserts

Mum reveals her horror as kids destroy her entire toilet paper stash

A mum who took the precautionary measure of stocking up on 18 rolls of toilet paper amid the coronavirus outbreak has discovered she doesn’t have a square to spare.

www.news.com.au

Oh come on.. 18 rolls is hardly deserving of any kind of hoarder label.. its basically a single jumbo pack nowadays..

 

[33kft]

Most Woolies and Coles home delivery orders are 'picked' from an actual designated regional store relative to the customer.

Which is bizarre. I have multiple DCs around me and yet the produce must go to a suburban store, get shelved then picked then put back on a truck and sent to me. This is what needs to change for the model to remain competitive against online-only services like Amazon.

 

[pauly7]

Better not tell the rest of the world this, we’ll just keep it between ourselves. It’s starting to look like the Preppers may have been onto something:

U.S. Virus Plan Anticipates 18-Month Pandemic and Widespread Shortages
The 100-page federal plan laid out a grim prognosis and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government.

March 17, 2020
WASHINGTON — A federal government plan to combat the coronavirus warned policymakers last week that a pandemic “will last 18 months or longer” and could include “multiple waves,” resulting in widespread shortages that would strain consumers and the nation’s health care system 100-page federal plan laid out a grim prognosis and outlined a response that would activate agencies across the government..

Well they have to do something to extract the funding from the government administration given their slow start.

This seems very alarmist, but it is American I suppose.

 

[drron]

Foodworks regional Victoria doing the right thing-but hard if you are a genuine tourist.
.

 

[Julesmac]

A tip for anyone whose share portfolio has taken a shellacking. Buy up shares in Bowater Scott. Their sales must be through the roof. When my 3 girls lived at home I spent more money in a week on toilet paper, tissues and tampax than on everything else for the rest of the month!

 

[ja1]

I've now visited 3 Woolies stores and 1 Coles in the last 48-72 hours. I'd have tried Aldi but literally couldn't get in..

All the supermarket chains here have new opening hours - 8am - 8pm For Woolies and Aldi now shuts at 7pm..

I'm assuming it's to simply allow for sufficient time to get stock back on shelves.

I haven't been able to discern much of a pattern except for assuming that sold out items are:

- seen as necessary for personal hygiene and/or multiple uses (toilet paper/tissues)
- seen as necessary in a self isolation sense where people simply plan to avoid the supermarket and literally don't expect to leave the house (that's not what self isolation means and what the government is asking people to do, if you aren't actually sick!)

Things that have run out in one or all the supermarkets I visited

- Meat of most kinds (especially mince and sausages) - I'm assuming because people can freeze this, make a variety of things with it or cook it simply on a BBQ..
- Vegetables that can be stored or needed for home cooking - potatoes, onions and so on
- plenty of broccoli, corn, beans - but no packaged corn!
- Eggs - I have no idea why people think this would run out.. chickens don't stop laying..
- Milk - I have really no idea why this happened.. and it's quite recent as yesterday milk wasn't an issue
- Frozen food products - peas, beans etc
- Rice and Pasta - seen as staples
- Toilet paper, tissues, kitchen rolls etc - I haven't seen a toilet roll in a supermarket locally in more than a week. It's almost reached the stage where if we didn't have any left at home I might start questioning whether this was in fact something that had been invented and existed..
- Toothpaste - ??
- Hand sanitizer and hand soap - ok. I get that people will use a lot more of this..
- Canned tomatoes and other canned goods - expectation of breakdown in supply and it lasts for a long time.. ok
- Flour and yeast - has been out for days.. or weeks. At least people are smart enough to also buy up all the baking paper
- All the pancake mix (self mix/shake) disappeared. Cravings for pancakes ? Do they think they can make bread out of it since it's really just flour ?

There was heaps of fish available at the deli - no issues there. Also the vegetarian frozen section was stocked full....
Honestly it's pretty confusing as a few things have some reasoning you could apply to the thought process but other shelves - why on earth would they run out..

I've talked to a few staff members - mainly to say thanks for all the efforts and to give them a friendly encounter as most seem a bit stressed in dealing with people who are either angry with them, angry generally (and can't keep the emotion from flowing out) or simply distressed with similar effect.

As there was plenty of chocolate I was tempted to just buy a few bags and go around handing out chocolate to the staff but there are probably rules against accepting that from a random stranger.. er customer..

I think someone else said it - this feels like a lot of people's first experience with what it was like to shop in a 'normal' soviet supermarket (as opposed to the supermarkets run separately for the upper class comrades)

 

[Pushka]

I've now visited 3 Woolies stores and 1 Coles in the last 48-72 hours. I'd have tried Aldi but literally couldn't get in..

All the supermarket chains here have new opening hours - 8am - 8pm For Woolies and Aldi now shuts at 7pm..

I'm assuming it's to simply allow for sufficient time to get stock back on shelves.

I haven't been able to discern much of a pattern except for assuming that sold out items are:

- seen as necessary for personal hygiene and/or multiple uses (toilet paper/tissues)
- seen as necessary in a self isolation sense where people simply plan to avoid the supermarket and literally don't expect to leave the house (that's not what self isolation means and what the government is asking people to do, if you aren't actually sick!)

Things that have run out in one or all the supermarkets I visited

- Meat of most kinds (especially mince and sausages) - I'm assuming because people can freeze this, make a variety of things with it or cook it simply on a BBQ..
- Vegetables that can be stored or needed for home cooking - potatoes, onions and so on
- plenty of broccoli, corn, beans - but no packaged corn!
- Eggs - I have no idea why people think this would run out.. chickens don't stop laying..
- Milk - I have really no idea why this happened.. and it's quite recent as yesterday milk wasn't an issue
- Frozen food products - peas, beans etc
- Rice and Pasta - seen as staples
- Toilet paper, tissues, kitchen rolls etc - I haven't seen a toilet roll in a supermarket locally in more than a week. It's almost reached the stage where if we didn't have any left at home I might start questioning whether this was in fact something that had been invented and existed..
- Toothpaste - ??
- Hand sanitizer and hand soap - ok. I get that people will use a lot more of this..
- Canned tomatoes and other canned goods - expectation of breakdown in supply and it lasts for a long time.. ok
- Flour and yeast - has been out for days.. or weeks. At least people are smart enough to also buy up all the baking paper
- All the pancake mix (self mix/shake) disappeared. Cravings for pancakes ? Do they think they can make bread out of it since it's really just flour ?

There was heaps of fish available at the deli - no issues there. Also the vegetarian frozen section was stocked full....
Honestly it's pretty confusing as a few things have some reasoning you could apply to the thought process but other shelves - why on earth would they run out..

I've talked to a few staff members - mainly to say thanks for all the efforts and to give them a friendly encounter as most seem a bit stressed in dealing with people who are either angry with them, angry generally (and can't keep the emotion from flowing out) or simply distressed with similar effect.

As there was plenty of chocolate I was tempted to just buy a few bags and go around handing out chocolate to the staff but there are probably rules against accepting that from a random stranger.. er customer..

I think someone else said it - this feels like a lot of people's first experience with what it was like to shop in a 'normal' soviet supermarket (as opposed to the supermarkets run separately for the upper class comrades)

Ive seen empty shelves before but today was an epic. It made me think I need to take the other half on a shopping tour so they can see the carnage first hand. Of course they are experiencing the carnage in the business so its not like they don't understand.

 

[ellen10]

We have a large local fruit and veg store which also sells meat, milk lots of different cheeses cold meats, frozen foods and continental foods. The last 2 days the queue to get into the car park (they have special parking people) is 20 mins long. It is blocking the main highway and all the local streets.
It is complete madness!
Earlier in the week my local IGA got a load of toilet paper at 7.30pm, this fact was advertised on a local Facebook page. I happened to be in the store at the time and people came rushing in through the doors. When I walked out of the store to the car park I was nearly run over by speeding cars and people leaping out of the cars and running in to the store.
The next day I saw a friend who works there who said that it was 1 packet of toilet paper per person, but families of 4 or 5 were buying a pack each person and going through the cash registers separately. She said that they knew they were from the same family but were too frightened to say anything for fear of being abused.
What has society come to?

 

[Pushka]

We have a large local fruit and veg store which also sells meat, milk lots of different cheeses cold meats, frozen foods and continental foods. The last 2 days the queue to get into the car park (they have special parking people) is 20 mins long. It is blocking the main highway and all the local streets.
It is complete madness!
Earlier in the week my local IGA got a load of toilet paper at 7.30pm, this fact was advertised on a local Facebook page. I happened to be in the store at the time and people came rushing in through the doors. When I walked out of the store to the car park I was nearly run over by speeding cars and people leaping out of the cars and running in to the store.
The next day I saw a friend who works there who said that it was 1 packet of toilet paper per person, but families of 4 or 5 were buying a pack each person and going through the cash registers separately. She said that they knew they were from the same family but were too frightened to say anything for fear of being abused.
What has society come to?

It's like the Bog roll has become the beacon for the anger about this virus!

 

[rogerkambah]

Yesterday I received an email from a beaming gentleman proudly proclaiming that this was 'A Message from Steven Cain' of Colesgroup.

He was letting me know that Coles were commencing a: "Community Hour" from Monday to Friday in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand.

Further reading said that this would be exclusively for customers who hold a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Companion Card and Health Care Card.

With promises of restocking to be made tonight I thought I might get along early tomorrow to see if I could pick up some of supermarket items we are running very short on.

Alas, it seems I don't qualify, despite being in my 8th decade on this earth (or a septuagenarian), having a terminal disease (if left untreated), having some mobility and other medical issues.

My problem is that I don't hold any of the aforementioned cards. Quite a lot of self funded aged and infirm superannuation retirees would be in the same boat.

<redacted>

 

[p--and--t]

Yesterday I received an email from a beaming gentleman proudly proclaiming that this was 'A Message from Steven Cain' of Colesgroup.

He was letting me know that Coles were commencing a: "Community Hour" from Monday to Friday in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand.

Further reading said that this would be exclusively for customers who hold a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Companion Card and Health Care Card.

With promises of restocking to be made tonight I thought I might get along early tomorrow to see if I could pick up some of supermarket items we are running very short on.

Alas, it seems I don't qualify, despite being in my 8th decade on this earth (or a septuagenarian), having a terminal disease (if left untreated), having some mobility and other medical issues.

My problem is that I don't hold any of the aforementioned cards. Quite a lot of self funded aged and infirm superannuation retirees would be in the same boat.

Yes, that same group that Billy Shorton thought he could ignore.

Yes I noticed that straight away - and that their TV advertising is misleading saying people of 55 can use the special hour. Woollies accepts a state gov seniors card as well as the ones Coles accepts.

 

[Pushka]

Yesterday I received an email from a beaming gentleman proudly proclaiming that this was 'A Message from Steven Cain' of Colesgroup.

He was letting me know that Coles were commencing a: "Community Hour" from Monday to Friday in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand.

Further reading said that this would be exclusively for customers who hold a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Companion Card and Health Care Card.

With promises of restocking to be made tonight I thought I might get along early tomorrow to see if I could pick up some of supermarket items we are running very short on.

Alas, it seems I don't qualify, despite being in my 8th decade on this earth (or a septuagenarian), having a terminal disease (if left untreated), having some mobility and other medical issues.

My problem is that I don't hold any of the aforementioned cards. Quite a lot of self funded aged and infirm superannuation retirees would be in the same boat.

<redacted>

What is a Commonwealth seniors card? Each state issues them!

 

[Flying mermaid]

Yesterday I received an email from a beaming gentleman proudly proclaiming that this was 'A Message from Steven Cain' of Colesgroup.

He was letting me know that Coles were commencing a: "Community Hour" from Monday to Friday in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand.

Further reading said that this would be exclusively for customers who hold a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Companion Card and Health Care Card.

With promises of restocking to be made tonight I thought I might get along early tomorrow to see if I could pick up some of supermarket items we are running very short on.

Alas, it seems I don't qualify, despite being in my 8th decade on this earth (or a septuagenarian), having a terminal disease (if left untreated), having some mobility and other medical issues.

My problem is that I don't hold any of the aforementioned cards. Quite a lot of self funded aged and infirm superannuation retirees would be in the same boat.

<redacted>

We normally shop at Coles as it’s more convenient. I went and checked Woolies and they are doing the same thing, but you can get in with a government issued Seniors card. Now we don’t feel the need to have access to the special hour, but if we did we would make for Woolworths.

 

[Flying mermaid]

What is a Commonwealth seniors card? Each state issues them!

A commonwealth Seniors health card is not the same as a seniors card (which is state issued). The health card is income tested and gives real benefits. We are not eligible for one, but do have an ACT issued seniors card

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card - Services Australia

A concession card to get cheaper health care and some discounts if you’ve reached Age Pension age.

www.servicesaustralia.gov.au