With the number of coronavirus cases growing by the day, anxieties have risen to new heights–causing people to take drastic measures.

As President Trump declared a national emergency last Friday, hordes of shoppers rushed to various grocery stores across the country–filling their carts completely and emptying shelves to prepare for the unknowns surrounding the coronavirus.

For many stores (such as Target and Walmart), hand soap, sanitizer, toilet paper, and other necessities like tampons and cold and flu medicine were completely sold out. People flooded stores trying to obtain some of these items only to find that they were completely cleared from shelves by other anxious shoppers around the country. Stores were not only being cleared of their resources, but they were also overwhelmed with long lines of stressed customers waiting to check out their large quantities of groceries.

“Soon after the 9 a.m. opening on Friday of the Trader Joe’s in Hoboken, N.J., a line of nervous customers stretched along the block in the rain, waiting to pick through the mostly bare shelves inside. There was no chicken available, nor garbanzo beans, coffee or chips. The store was restocking regularly, but many of its registers were unstaffed” (NY Times).

Unfortunately, this grocery store frenzy has gotten so bad to the point where stores are beginning to ration products and put limits on how much a customer may buy. Even online grocery shopping resources have been affected by the coronavirus panic–making it that much harder to obtain groceries in a timely manner if using those grocery shopping sites.

I wonder how much longer this panic will last, and if we will ever be able to buy more toilet paper.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/nyregion/coronavirus-panic-buying.html