Panic Shopping and Shortages and Kindness

Cachoo

Cachoo

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I suspect initially there will be more of the former and less of the latter that we hear about but I wanted to have the opportunity to read about the bad....and the good. I actually found some TP (Charmin only) at my local Walmart.
 
Two local businesses--a restaurant and a bakery--have joined forces to feed kids breakfast and lunch. Any kid who is out of school and needs food can pick up a packed breakfast from the restaurant or a lunch from the bakery, no questions asked.

I thought that was amazingly generous, considering both businesses are almost certainly going to suffer losses.
 
The good: my elderly parents (87 and 91), who live in a condo, opened their door to find two canisters of Lysol wipes, dropped off by a neighbor.

Also good: got an email blast from a neighbor offering to shop for any elderly or high risk people in the neighborhood.

It's heartwarming to see kindness amid the chaos. :)
 
Several younger (under 40) Facebook friends have posted offers to grocery shop or do errands for anyone who feels skittish about going out.

Another friend is taking a collection to contribute to someone’s rent. The person is a waitress and her income last week dropped 70%.

Finally, when the dust settles, please donate your “last resort” canned and dry goods to a food bank. You know your not going to use it once you feel comfortable going back to routine shopping, so let it do some good.
 
A restaurant and bakery in Delaware is also giving some free meals, like @Prancer posted. I was amazed too, and would patronize them in the future if I lived anywhere near them.

I just sent a bunch of Bradley videos to the people in charge of the pet therapy teams at the shelter. Since we can’t visit for awhile, they are going to make compilation videos to send to all the facilities.
 
Woolworths have been sending out emails to customers advising about changes to limits and their change of mind returns policy. In the last one, they informed that they were partnering with Meals on Wheels to make sure seniors and other folks who can't leave the house for whatever reason were able to get toilet paper and other essentials for sanitary health.
 
My father, who died many years ago now, drummed into me from a very early age the need to always maintain at least a months supply of food and essentials just in case of an emergency. Quite sensible and it’s a policy our family have always stuck to. I always keep an eye on the use by dates and when they get to 3 months prior to expiry and the time has come to replace them, I always take them down to a local food bank so that they do not go to waste. I think that a lot of those who are panic buying at the moment are going to find a lot of unused food on their hands which could end up going to waste. I hope therefore that they do the right thing and take it down to their local food bank.
 
BittyBug said:
The good: my elderly parents (87 and 91), who live in a condo, opened their door to find two canisters of Lysol wipes, dropped off by a neighbor.

Also good: got an email blast from a neighbor offering to shop for any elderly or high risk people in the neighborhood.

It's heartwarming to see kindness amid the chaos. :)
Click to expand...

I saw a story on the news last night of a young woman who found two eighty somethings parked at the grocery store, in tears, too afraid to enter. She shopped for them. It is such an easy ask but sometimes people won't, can't or don't know how to reach out. Anyway I loved her willingness to help.

And Naples: Did anyone see the footage last night of people on their apartment balconies, singing to one another? Awesome.
 
Lots of posts on our neighborhood FB pages about donations to food pantries etc., as well as connections between people offering to shop, pick up meds, etc. for families with at-risk members.
 
I thought was very appropriate.

Heather Richardson @Heather49006718
Just my thoughts! #COVIDCanada #COVIDー19 #Coronaindia
twitter.com

Heather Richardson on Twitter

“Just my thoughts! #COVIDCanada #COVIDー19 #Coronaindia”
twitter.com twitter.com

ETJRXtZXgAM2AJr
 
There's a food pantry here that has bagged and boxed up items and was standing out in the snow yesterday handing them out to people who drive up so that wouldn't have to gather inside. You get what you get, but at least it is something. They asked that people donate money, not any items that have to be sanitized before it can be bagged or boxed.
 
This was on my MSN homepage this morning.

Just click on your state to get the latest news:
State-by-state Coronavirus News

I found this info regarding Dollar General after I clicked on the latest news for Louisiana.

Dollar General Implements "Senior Hour" To Help Elderly Customers Shop First

It's from the Dollar General Corporation which is located in Lake Charles, LA. I assume that this will be implemented for other states, too, that have Dollar General store locations.

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The Dollar General Corporation is implementing what they call, “Senior Hour.”

“Senior Hour” will be “solely for the shopping needs of senior customers, who are one of the groups most vulnerable to the COVID-19 coronavirus,” says the company.

On Mar. 17, stores will begin dedicating the first hour of operation each day to their senior customers.

The company realizes these shoppers are at-risk of catching the virus. They hope that it will allow these shoppers to purchase the items they need/want and avoid busy and more crowded shopping times.

According to corporation, other customers are asked to plan their shopping trips around this window of time, allowing the most susceptible customers the ability to shop during the first hour that stores are open.
Click to expand...
 
An article about an elderly grocery store clerk who "feels caught between two bad options: She needs to make money in order to live, but her current means of employment might kill her. We spoke about that, as well as about how the panic buying has affected her grocery store’s bottom line, and the shreds of optimism she finds in the attitude of the Seattle community."
www.vox.com

Supermarkets are chaos. A grocery store worker explains what it’s like at work right now.

For Chris, dwindling supplies and hostile customers are just the beginning of Covid-19 fears.
www.vox.com www.vox.com
 
Meijer wasn't any more crowded than usual at 1 p.m. on a weekday - right across the street from a packed Kroger parking lot. To be fair, they don't have a full parking lot yet. They've only been open a couple weeks and have to tear down the old store first. Frozen foods and the meat section were pretty sparse. There was a clerk opening boxes of big multi-packs of Charmin and people were waiting in line to get them.

I got my yogurts. And a carton of generic Dr. Pepper that I dropped and broke the cardboard trying to put it in the trunk. I caught them before they hit the ground. And a couple other things. But everybody has been nice and calm. They were out of wipes for the carts though.

I got an email from Kroger this morning that said they were doing their best to restock, but the panic buying is putting a strain on getting the deliveries.
 
Prancer said:
Two local businesses--a restaurant and a bakery--have joined forces to feed kids breakfast and lunch. Any kid who is out of school and needs food can pick up a packed breakfast from the restaurant or a lunch from the bakery, no questions asked.

I thought that was amazingly generous, considering both businesses are almost certainly going to suffer losses.
Click to expand...

And they both just maxed out at 600 kids :eek:

Apparently there was a big run on the local Kroger last week, with people waiting in line for more than an hour. I missed it all (thank god), but apparently some people bought gift cards for cashiers as thank yous and someone sent them all flowers. I thought that was nice.

Also, my Nextdoor group is full of people offering to help neighbors with food, errands, anything that might help. My particular neighborhood is full of retirees, so I think this is a good thing.
 
Buzz said:
Once the panic buying started around here, there seems to be no end to it.
Click to expand...

Same here. As soon as the shelves get stocked they are cleaned out in about an hour. People are posting on my neighborhood boards "grocery just restocked the meat at 9am!" and then another message "I was there at 10:15a and it was all gone!", and stuff like that. They are basically hiring walk-ins at the grocery as well. Come with ID and SS card and you are hired to start the next day to help stock shelves.
 
The schools here are officially online only through the rest of the semester. People who have to attend labs and other hands on learning are only going to be 10 to a classroom and spaced out in the rooms.

As much as I hate Comcast and called them the devil, I appreciate that they are offering 2 months of free internet access to qualifying households. Charter is offering 60 days of free access and it sounded like AT&T was already offering $10 a month access to qualifying households.
 
Prancer said:
Also, my Nextdoor group is full of people offering to help neighbors with food, errands, anything that might help. My particular neighborhood is full of retirees, so I think this is a good thing.
Click to expand...

I live in a large condo complex that has predominantly older residents. The condo association just sent out an email relaying an offer from the Town's Mom's Group on facebook saying they had 100 volunteers willing to help with shopping, prescriptions and other things that the older residents may need and saying how to contact them.
 
myhoneyhoney said:
Something scary for me: I see long lines at gun stores.
Click to expand...

I saw an article about this the other day and my first thought was Canada and Mexico should build a wall.

As for panic buying my sister in Australia hasn't had much luck shopping recently. Using napkins for toilet paper and last we spoke store shelves were empty and was waiting on the next shipment. She is pissed at all the hoarders.
 
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