I don’t have much tool-specific coronavirus (COVID-19) news right now, but there are some general happenings I wanted to share. Part of this is for my own benefit, so I can look back and see what I witnessed and observed during these unprecedented times, part of it is to see whether your experiences have been similar.
We’ve seen shortages on respirators, and then on hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies. On Thursday, I went to the local supermarket at around lunchtime to pick up some supplies and saw that the meat section was pretty much cleared out. The parking lot was packed to the level we typically only see the weekend before Thanksgiving.
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It wasn’t quite chaotic, but people seemed more frantic than usual, and a stocker was telling everyone how this is his “third zombie apocalypse.”
It was a bit unsettling to see the shelves barren of any fresh meat. There were plenty of processed meats and also “plant protein” products. I picked up a beef salami last week for my son, and also have a pack of hot dogs, or I might have bought some more.
I don’t think there are shortages, it seems that people are simple buying way more than they usually do.
News media has been saying that there’s no shortage on toilet paper, but why is it that I have barely seen any in the past two weeks? I probably should have bought more, but I bought a pack at the wholesale club a few weeks ago – as part of normal household shopping – before the nationwide run on toilet paper and *should* be okay. What worries me, albeit very mildly, is about whether I’ll be able to find toilet paper in a few weeks when it’s time for a resupply.
On Saturday, I went to a more favored supermarket around 25 minutes away, at around 1pm, and the meat shelves were mostly bare, but a delivery had just come in and the store associates were working to restock them. There were boxes and boxes of chicken, and then quite a few boxes of beef. I picked up a pack of cutlets and circled back three times until they had put whole chickens back on the shelf.
That’s the main reason I went to this supermarket – I wanted two of their small organic whole chickens. I’m planning to make my second-ever chicken soup, but I also want to roast a chicken in the oven. My kids were gobbling up some soup chicken before it was actually in the soup (I removed the white meat after it was cooked through), and I know my son likes drumsticks. Perhaps they’ll like roasted chicken too, and if not, more for me. Who says a pandemic has to slow down culinary explorations?
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They were restocking the water section with store-brand gallons, although toilet paper and cleaning supplies were still scarce.
Heinz ketchup was mostly cleared out, but there were plenty of store brand ketchup to take their place.
I couldn’t find ground beef – although they did have a beef, veal, pork mix – but I picked up a steak to share with my son since we wouldn’t be going to the steakhouse anytime soon. I’m making a corned beef for next week.
There was plenty of produce, but no full-size or baby carrots.
One person had several cases of Snapple in their cart. A week before, I saw someone with a cart full of protein shakes.
Certain cold cuts and deli cheeses were sold out.
I bought a block of mozzarella earlier in the week, which was good because now there was none to be had.
4 lb bags of sugar were sold out for over at week now. During Saturday’s visit, I saw that the yeast was also all sold out.
It’s been maybe 3 visits (~2 weeks) since I’ve seen fresh garlic, but this store has run out of garlic before.
Watching the store associates completely filling the meat shelves – or at least the chicken sections – was reassuring. I also heard that a couple of chains across the country are now going to close a little earlier so that they can restock shelves. I’m not going to panic-run to any stores early in the morning as I’ve seen so far that I can get *most* of what I need mid-day.
It looks like there will be plenty of most things to go around, the key is to not panic.
Did you hear about the two guys who have nearly 18,000 bottles of hand sanitizer that they can’t sell online any longer due to anti-price-gouging rules?
The eggs were mostly sold out, except for what looked to be a recent resupply of large eggs of which there were plenty of boxes. There was a limit of 2 per customer, and so I bought two. I had planned on getting one dozen, but eggs last a while in the refrigerator. 3 out of 4 of us eat eggs, and so if I can’t get fresh chicken for a couple of days next week, that’s what we’ll have. I also have two bags of frozen chicken strips and nuggets in the freezer, for variety.
Ah, I forgot to mention it – the hot food bars were closed. That makes sense.
When entering the supermarket, everyone was using wipes, provided at the door, for sanitizing the handles of their carts. This supermarket had plenty of carts. At the local supermarket we went to on Thursday, all the carts were in use and so my wife and I both grabbed a basket each.
In all, I bought maybe one extra pack of chicken, and one extra dozen of eggs, and so I don’t think I went overboard. What I’m not mentioning is that I had already built a “quarantine cache” of food in case anyone gets sick and the four of us are stuck at home for 2 weeks. But, I did that in late February when authorities started to recommend it.
Speaking of being stuck at home… my son’s school is closing – “indefinitely.” Other districts in the area are closing schools for between 2 and 4 weeks. We just received word that my daughter’s preschool is closing for at least a week. We were hoping against this, but it was anticipated and I can’t argue with the decision.
The news is saying that in some areas they can foresee schools being closed through the rest of the year, but it’s impossible to know if it’ll come to that.
My wife is able to work from home, as am I, but this is going to be a tough time. Kids are social and active creatures and they don’t respond well to being cooped up at home. I’ll be looking for ways for my son to help me out with tool testing, or maybe I’ll design a project we can work out together.
To be honest, I don’t repsond well to being cooped up at home. But, it’ll be manageable. I hope.
I tried ordering some stuff from Amazon last night (Saturday), and was being quoted with a Wednesday ETA. 4 days? It was nothing too important. I changed my order and limited it to something for the kitchen and a personal healthcare item, and they should be arriving today. The other items could wait.
A 4 day ETA for Amazon Prime, though, that’s rough. To me, it suggests that they’ve been inundated with orders and are over-capacity. I don’t remember seeing this happen around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or the July Prime Day sales events.
I tried to place an “Amazon Fresh” order, just to try it out, and there are no delivery time slots this week.
I would expect for more business dealings and services to slow down. If schools are closed, that means kids are home, and kids at home require adult supervision. Parents that need to be home are parents that probably won’t be working out of the home. I read last night that NYC is hesitant to close schools because of the effects doing so would have on transit workers, healthcare workers, and others, and that closing schools would also leave “hundreds of thousands of teenagers on the streets.”
Update: NYC has announced the closure of all public schools.
Things are getting a little scary, not just because people are panic-shopping at the grocery store, but that’s not the focus of this post.
What I’m wondering is about what these closures, shutdowns, and distances will also mean for pros who conduct service calls and what-not. Does a slowdown in commercial business activities translate to a reduced need for professional services?
I haven’t seen what things are like at the hardware store, but I imagine that home centers are seeing slower foot traffic. It’s been urged that if you don’t need to go somewhere, don’t, but I don’t know how much that will affects home centers such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, which typically see tradesman and consumer foot traffic.
I’d like to see what things are like at Home Depot and Lowe’s these days, but I’m staying put.
I’m just going to pretend there’s a blizzard and I’ve been advised to stay off the streets, because that’s a hell of a lot less scarier than reality.
To be truthful, the “how are going to entertain the kids in the house” is one of the most stressful part right now. *knock on wood* I’ll be happy if that’s the worst I need to think about, plan for, or accommodate.
So, how are you guys doing?
P.S. Please refrain from politics. It’s possible to talk about these happenings without stepping into political topic territorities.
Be well everyone!
See More of Our Coronavirus News and Posts Here
Related posts:
Coronavirus Pandemic Log: Grocery Store Status, Online Shopping, Cabin Fever (3/31/20)
COVID-19 Pandemic Log, and What’s Going on at Home Depot and Lowe’s (04/10/2020)
COVID-19 News: New Home Depot and Lowe’s Online Ordering Policies (4/10/2020)
COVID-19 News: Too Many Shoppers at Home Depot and Lowe’s Stores? (4/13/20)
George
I went to Lowes near me (Richmond, VA) on Saturday and things looked pretty normal except everyone was (correctly) swinging wide of each other. There were people clearly looking for products that were gone from the grocery stores such as cleaning products but also people just buying the stuff people do on a Saturday in Lowes.
The grocery store, on the other hand, looked like Soviet Russia in the meat, cleaning, TP, and pasta sections. I got the impressions some people were just buying a lot of stuff to have stuff. Others were clearly having less-than-pleasant conversations on the phone in the empty TP and paper towel section like they’d been sent on a one-product mission that wasn’t going well.
A W
Hi Stuart,
I went to Home Depot yesterday to get some storage bins. Things looked relatively normal. Bottled water was on sale with a limit of x amount per customer. They’ve been out of hand sanitizer for at least the last several weeks, presumably snapped up by Amazon resellers. I didn’t bother even checking for toilet paper as most places are out. I wore work gloves, got bins that were lower in the stack, and noted every person that coughed near me.
We started using a bidet last year so I’m not that worried about TP. We also have a good supply on hand.
And we’re blessed to be able to live off of one income so my wife is able to be on kid duty full time (ours are 7, 5 and 1) The oldest is excited about being able to do home school for a while.
We’ve talked a fair amount about coronavirus with them. PBS kids has a good resource on how to help them understand what’s happening and what they can do to be germ busters and help not spread gems that are especially dangerous to older people like their great grandparents.
Our school closing was announced Friday after school. Our church held services remotely this morning. I cancelled a work trip to LA last week and taught remotely.
These are interesting times.
A W
https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/how-to-talk-to-your-kids-about-coronavirus
Robert
My kids are homeschooled, so only their local co-op was cancelled. Not much difference for us. Lowe’s and Home Depot are both the same as well. Just hope people keep doing what they’re suppose to. I will keep on working and going out as I normally do. I’m in Texas fyi.
John B
Came home to a leaking hot water heater. Went to Lowe’s (Beckley,WV) to get one. Appliance section was very busy. Took 20 minutes before they could get the one I needed down for me. Store seemed normal Saturday evening busy. I get the need to be distant, but I’m not giving up the creature comfort of hot water.
michael
I’m in property restoration, I expect many plumbing issues to clean up and dry out over the next couple months. People will start flushing strange things down the toilet. That along with sanitizing these schools, theaters etc. should keep me busy.
Charles Devine
I’ve been meaning to pick up a small freezer for some time, and the coronavirus thing was enough to finally push me into actually searching for one. All the small ones seem to be out of stock, but the issue for me is that the websites for the HD and Lowes near me show stock they turned out to not actually have. Stood in HD with the clerk, my phone said they had 5, her internal system said they had 6. But darned if we could find one. Frustrating.
Chris I
That’s so crazy to me. Sounds like HD might be cooking the books on inventory….
OhioHead
In my experience w/ Lowe’s and Depot if the system shows 5 or less of a smaller item (say a tape measure) it is top stock, mistocked, miscounted or stolen………to quote a band from the 90’s when announcing the next show performance “call before you haul!”
Frank D
Similar shock this week at the local WM and Sam’s … lots of empty shelves when it comes to paper goods, sanitizing products, water, meat, frozen veg, fresh produce, …
Many rows, three levels high of empty shelves! !! Unreal.
Some people must be hoarding or buying for resale for there not to be stuff on the shelves for over a week.
Media may claim no shortage, but when I cannot put my hand on something for a week nor can order it online shipped to my house, then there undeniably is a shortage. Been trying for a week to get some hand sanitizer or iso propyl alcohol to make our own, looking locally and online, so that we could have some in every car when forced to be out and about … and to make some spray to mist down some equipment, shoes, …
I am used to seeing of this during hurricane season, but this is many levels above and beyond that.
And, I have no idea what people are going to do with 5-10 or more years worth of TP, when they won’t have food to eat in a few weeks.
Ray
My large Shoprite is out of fresh meat, bread and Toilet paper. Monday at 8 to 9 bread is delivered. Will be there and at the bank for some Money since a NYC bank ran out of 100’s
People in North Jersey are using Quill.com for Scotts T.P. (A staples company)
Being a first responder at WTC with a science background, . I have 6 months of buckets of split peas, kidney beans, pop corn which is not gene modified like yellow corn, and white and red wheat and oats in 5 gallon buckets with a 25:year shelf life. And 35- 5 gallon bottles of Poland springs water.
Last month I bought new yeast and I have a manual wheat grinder
I bought it from emergency essentials from the L.D.S. Folks in Utah.
You have to eat 5 essential amino acids daily even if you are a vegan for brain health.
You must eat grains and beans if no animal protein is available. The people of Central and South America eat different color rice and beans. You can eat any grain such as oats, wheat and any color beans.
Kizzle
I understand most of your survival foods, but why popcorn? Wouldn’t you have to eat a ton of popped corn for nutritional value?
Mopar
People like Ray know that popcorn, in and of itself is extremely nutritious for it’s stored size/weight, and also keeps for a reasonably long time.
Fun facts:
One 3.5 ounce serving of air-popped popcorn contains:
13 grams of protein
15 grams of fiber
78 grams of carbs
18% of the recommended daily intake of iron
56% RDI of maganese
36% RDI of magnesium and phosphorus
21% RDI of zinc
13% RDI copper
9% RDI potassium
All with only 387 calories and 5 grams of fat.
Popcorn is also very high in polyphenol antioxidants, which have many health benefits and may reduce the risk of cancer. All in all, a very good survival food.
Microwave popcorn is a totally different beast. Don’t eat that crap.
Kizzle
I was unaware of that. Thanks.
ktash
Thank you! Hot air popcorn is my favorite snack. No need to feel guilty snacking, then. You can put different seasoned salts/spices like chili powder on it for variety. Well, except for the butter 🙂
Eric
I can see a mixed bag for the home centers. Sure people are trying to stay home when they can. But while they’re stuck at home anyway it’s a great time to do those home projects they’ve been putting off. So there could be an uptick in sales there.
As for how I’m doing, I’m ok for now. But I work in a performing arts center. So lots of events have been canceled. As long as things don’t get to bad we’ll just use the time to work on projects around the building. But at some point that list of projects will run out, or the funding to do them will since we won’t be making any money. Though I’m better off than a lot of people in the industry have found themselves entirely out of work for at least the next month, and probably longer.
Jon
I keep it tools. Keep this to places like Facebook please.
Adam
If the world wasn’t all wrapped up around this, I’d agree. I enjoy Stuart’s writing, so don’t mind an off topic article or to.
Not like I anticipate any major tool releases soon now. Though I hope NPS20 is still on, though I’m guessing they will only invite minimal amount of people. Hopefully none of the one hit wonder you-tubers
Stuart
As of last week, NPS20 was still on.
But with lockdowns and unknown consequences to travel, it’s uncertain (in my opinion).
NPS20 is a massive undertaking, requiring enormous efforts from Milwaukee product managers, engineers, and associates.
I hope that the situation improves to where they can have a large NPS20 gathering in 3 months, but the health and safety of all is most important.
HandyDan
Down in San Antonio, things are pretty normal except for the grocery store madness. Church this morning was a little empty, but other then that, people are still going out to eat, going to the movie theater, the normal stuff. Not really any social distancing or anything. Of course, besides the cruise ship passengers that they keep quarantined at Lackland AFB, we only have three confined cases, all of them related to travel. I supposed that will change if we get some community spread cases.
DRT
Lucky you can still go out to eat. Here in Ohio, the governor ordered all restaurants and bars in the state closed.
Ray
Jon, Stuart asked us about the situation at food stores. If you don’t like the topic wait for the next one.
You can’t eat tools. Many don’t belong to face book. We are also here to help each other as human beings.
Jim Felt
Yes. Clearly. And thank you.
Stuart
Thank you! He’s entitled to his opinion, and was relatively polite in expressing it.
Although I wrote mostly of my grocery store experiences, I’m interested in hearing about readers’ general experiences. I figure there are lots of pros and non-pros who otherwise wouldn’t share about their experiences or observations, and your inputs are valuable.
Josh
Harbor Freight was out of 5mil nitrile gloves, but it might not have been a result of coronavirus. They were in the midst of a “rare parking lot liquidation sale”. 🙂
I also noticed a lot of folks loading freezers and generators at the local warehouse club store.
James C
Plumbers will be busy. Once people run out of TP they will move on to paper towels, scraps of old clothes, etc. Lots of sewer line snaking. Bidet installs on the rise?
🙂
CA in NJ
Things in central NJ are fairly normal. Longer lines at stores and some empty shelves, but if you look around at other stores, you can find what you need. Plenty of food available. Everyone is just kind of on-edge. I stopped at the gun store on Friday – fresh sold out of ammo. A shotgun has been on my “things I should probably have” list for about a decade, and I guess it will stay there for now since they were fresh out of Mossbergs and couldn’t even get one from the distributor.
I’m wondering how long it will be before we see the local effects of supply chain disruptions. Harbor Freight and SBD and others only have so much stock on shore to distribute. I imagine they have significant reserves warehoused compared to current sales volume, but eventually we’ll start seeing some tool products become unavailable for a time. Remember, most of China was completely shut down for many weeks. That includes all production. If you’re thinking of buying a tool soon, do it soon. I just read that some other countries have stopped shipping raw materials to the US. The story I read referenced India holding up shipments of acetaminophen powder (raw material in 50lb drums used to make finished product (tablets, suspension, etc). I’m in healthcare/pharmacueticals and understand the thin supply margins that the US healthcare system operates on. After Hurricane Maria knocked out Baxter’s manufacturing plant in PR, we were in a bad way for a week or two for small volume IV bags in which many drugs are diluted. There was some bureaucratic magic performed somewhere and we received some Canadian sourced IV bags after about 2 weeks. That held us until a mainland US plant was up and running.
I just picked up a Milwaukee M12 right angle die grinder. Amazon provided me with a bunch of 2″ Roloc discs so I should be busy refinishing a bunch of small tool cabinets I’ve been meaning to get to.
I also went to the woodworking shows a week or so ago when it came to the area. I was slightly worried about virus exposure but I wouldn’t call the expo center a “crowded venue” by any stretch of the imagination. I ordered the Veritas small router table and will pair it with a Ridgid R2401 trim router. I also looked at the Castle TM101 low angle pocket hole jig. I didn’t buy one but was interested. It’s a new model that isn’t even listed on their website yet.
In summary, I have no job worries (other than being exposed to virus) unlike some of your readers. In many ways, I’m sure business will never be brisker. I am worried about the lack of available ventilators for the ICU. They are expensive and the hospitals don’t keep a ton extra of these around. I’m hoping everyone stays home and isolates for a week or three. This will have the effect of flattening the curve so that everyone doesn’t get sick at once and really sick patients don’t need ICU treatment all at the same time. We have plenty of food. My wife stays home anyway so three kids under 10 equals free house cleaning labor. So we’ll see. We’re in unprecedented territory, but my gut feeling is that a year from now, the vast majority of us will be OK (if not different).
Ian Random
God this is annoying. We were well stocked with food, but my wife didn’t notice the TP supply. Vantucky Winco sold out of bread, water, milk, eggs, fresh & frozen veg. Also they are closing at midnight now and a semi just pulled in when I got there.
Tim
Since my company is having everyone work remote I’m making the most of it and was able to grab a pork butt from the grocery store when they opened. Now I can do a long smoke during the day 🙂 .
Jeff from Tool Box Buzz
Smokables is the only thing I stocked up on since we’ll be at home quite a bit more. Smoked a bunch of cheese a couple weeks ago, pastrami yesterday, ribs probably next week, and so on…
Stuart
Wish I could come over (even without social distancing I know you’re half a country away)! Wouldn’t be empty handed, I’d bring homemade pickles. =) Or… if you’re not a pickle person, brownies!
Smoked cheese? Hmm… might just be the idea that finally gets me a smoker.
Jeff
I work at a major retailer, we had our busiest days ever wed, thurs and fri. Sales on those days even beat pre hurricane/post hurricane panic. Its been quite insane. selling out on produce, all sundries items, many food items, many health and beauty aids, and interestingly enough generators.
Wish us retail workers luck, be patient with us, we are working harder and longer with limited man power due to the time of the year.
To put perspective, many retailers hire seasonal employees to help out around Christmas this could be 20-40% more hours. We dont have those seasonal employees right now, and we are doing even more sales. This is every retailer.
Jp
People are acting dumb here too. In FL, people loading up carts and leaving it nare on the us side they won’t need more for hurricane season. My job is with exposure since the covid 19 patients will be on my hospital ward. I don’t think about getting it. I do think about passively spreading it to family. But i have a procedure for that. Running out of PPE is the larger issue for any hospital system.
Bob
Michigan here. So We have been pretty aggressive with our approach. I think we have around 40ish confirmed cases. Everything is on a pretty heavy lockdown. no schools, Bars/restaurants to be at no more than 50% capacity and close at 3pm and all the casinos are now shut down for at least two weeks. Most stores are doing OK with food and perishables. good luck finding paper products. Everyone who can is telecommuting.
This has been a bad flu season and many hospitals were near capacity due to our old age population. My Wife is a RN at University of Michigan. People are getting fired left and right for stealing supplies and etc and UofM is prepping for a HUGE wave of cases entire floor is dedicated to quarantine.
People are freaking out, better safe than sorry.
Chris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBrYDoe6HMk&feature=youtu.be
Local response to the two brothers trying to price gouge.
*NSFW language if that concerns you.
Flotsam
This will devastate certain states more than others. I think i was hearing that Nevada in particular was hit especially hard since i heard 50 % of revenue was from entertainment industry and sales tax revenues.
the priority obviously needs to be public health, but we need to see immediate relief from the government since there will be necessarily a lot of people that have no income coming in. We will see if that happens.
The stock market will ultimately recover it seems the obsession with that is counterproductive.
Kizzle
I work at Costco. We’ve been exceeding sales figures that we typically see only around the holidays. This is generally our slowest time of year so our forecasted numbers are being doubled. It’s been Saturday before Thanksgiving this whole week. Generally people are pissed we are out of sanitizer, toilet paper, and soap. Even more mad that there’s no masks; an item we never carry. I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet. Once people start quarantining and communities have more cases, these same stores will be ghost towns. Some big cities elsewhere in the world have empty streets where outbreaks have happened. Thing is, for some reason there seems to be a lack of testing people. Why? A numbers reasoning? Kit availability? Who knows, but because of this there’s probably people you’re coming into contact with everyday that have the virus and once you display symptoms; the utilitarianistic thing to do would be to keep yourself out of the community for two weeks. I like to believe that people are stocking up precisely for this scenario, but the realist in me knows it comes down to more primitive instinctual self interest and fear. Either way, as an asthmatic I’m actually quite worried with the amount of people I hear stating that people being concerned are stupid and they’d continue about their normal life if they had the virus themselves. I’ve also really noticed how rare coughing and sneezing into an elbow is. I’ve always thought this was a grade school habit engrained into people.
P.S. Handkerchiefs are disgusting. Coronavirus or not, carrying around a little package of your boogers does not harken back to a simpler and better time. It harkens back to a time when epidemiology wasn’t understood as well as it is now.
David A. VandeBerg
I guess everyone has a story they have to get out, but I was hoping I wouldn’t see anything about this topic on a tool blog.
Thanks for the work you do to keep us informed on the tool industry.
Kizzle
Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s kind of a big deal. Some societal wide implications affect everyone; even tool blogs…
Peter Rudy
Wow David, what an incredibly insensitive post. First, this is NOT your blog, but Stuart’s. He chooses the topics. If you do not like any of the topics, simply do not read. Or leave. Second, while YOU may not believe this is a big deal, the rest of the world does. The world is shutting down for several months while the World tries to get a handle on this.
I was PLEASED to see Stuart’s topic on this. How inappropriate and callous would it be at this time of world crisis to talk about the latest screwdriver. It is times like these that we realize what is really of value in our lives: our health, our loved ones and friends. I do not put the millionth tool Milwaukee invents on that list – anywhere. Almost all of us have too many great tools as it is.
I like this blog, its fun, even though I buy stuff I really do not need as a result. First world problem. Stuart should be applauded for his choice of topic.
Stuart
Thank you! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and as long as they express it respectfully, it’s hard to be offended or take things personally.
There are exceptions – someone was ranting about social distances and I trashed it. Regardless of politics, personal beliefs, or anything else, these are unprecedented times.
As of now, there hasn’t been any decisions on the federal level, but we’re starting to see statewide and even regional shutdowns and lockdowns.
People are coping in different ways. Me? I figured I’d share what I’ve been observing and ask for readers’ experiences so that I can better know and understand how these times are affecting you guys.
There are going to be some readers who want me to avoid straying beyond tool posts, and that’s okay. This isn’t a democracy, but I’m open to feedback.
The majority seems to be open to these types of posts, and I plan to continue with them, but without letting them take over the blog.
Joe
Now is a good time to catch up on some projects at home, but be careful, you don’t want to get hurt and have to go to the hospital.
The Subway is a ghost town.
The Mayor ordered restaurants, bars & even gyms closed. I’m glad I have a Power Rack the last couple of decades. Soon you’ll need more than good luck getting them from China soon. Oh wait, Rogue Fitness still makes their equipment in the USA.
aerodawg
Shortages come because the system is set up with just in time delivery based on the fact people generally only have to buy groceries every few days. The typical grocery store only contains enough items for approximately 36-48 hours of demand. When everyone freaks and goes to buy groceries all at once, the demand shock depletes the shelves. Although the warehouses are still well stocked, there’s not enough distribution capacity to immediately restock at the retail level. It just takes time.
You see the same thing with gasoline. The system is set up based around the fact people only have to fill up every few days. If a rumor of a gas shortage hits, there will be one, because the gas stations don’t have enough in their tanks to fill up every car simultaneously when everyone rushes out to get gas.
DRT
Which is why I went out this morning and filled four 5-gallon gas cans. The guy at the pump next to me remarked that he had done the exact same thing yesterday.
Wayne R.
At the end of January, my wife flew back to Denver from Nashville. A week later she was sick, a week after that I was sick, and it was something I’d never experienced before – sore throat, generally crappy feeling, rough cough – but also a lot of fluid generated by the sore patch in my throat.A LOT of fluid, getting up every ten minutes to spit out a mouthful. Weird, and makes me glad it wasn’t deeper in my chest – sounds like the fluid that’s killing people when it’s down in their lungs.
Honey doesn’t work these days, and I work from home. Thought I handled things okay but the next week when I was feeling better I realized I was more zombie than good employee. We isolated ourselves simply because we could and felt too crappy to go out. Lotta Netflix. No one in our circles got anything from us.
So, a medical person in our crew thinks we had COVID-19, I gotta go along with that, but there’s no way to be sure at this point. Apparently there will be some sort of test coming to shine a light on that, but so far we’re just guessing.
Nyquil & Dayquil were the things that let us sleep and heal. Get that before you need it…
Stuart
Yikes, glad you’re recovered!
DC
Same here, store shelves are empty. Schools closed for Spring Break but son is in a middle school that are on a multi-track system where he just came back from break last week and is on break again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was supposed to be in school until his next intersession break on April 21.
Another Jeff
The Lowe’s by us was practically empty for a Sunday. You did see a number of people in there, however, who seemed to be starting some major DIY projects, which is totally understandable. You can count on hardware stores being something that’s considered non-essential and shutting down if the SHTF, unlike grocery stores and similar, so I understand wanting to stock up now if you anticipate them closing mid-projects or leaving you project less with a lot of time on your hands. I did note some people wearing gloves. The majority of the people in the parking lot were going to the Sam’s next door. BTW, I don’t blame people for wanting to stock up on everything and anything. The concern should not be that they are going to run out but that you are going to need to make unnecessary runs later on when you have a higher risk of running into someone who is sick.
Koko the Talking Ape
I went to the local King Soopers (in the center of Denver) Thursday afternoon. It was busy but not crazy. Toilet paper was gone, as expected, but there were other weird things missing too, like Chunky canned soup but not Campbell’s. But generally, there was plenty of food and even some things on discount. People were quite friendly, including the other customers.
The next day I went to a Natural Grocers, and it was even better stocked. They were out of dried garbanzos and some dried fruit (apricots but not mangos, for some reason.) And they were out of toilet paper. But I went back the next day and they were restocking toilet paper.
Incidentally, about toilet paper in particular, I think part of the reason why it’s scarce is that it is so bulky that only a few extra buyers will empty the shelves. The same shelf that can hold hundreds of cans of soup can only hold a dozen packages of toilet paper. So a dozen customers will leave the shelves bare.
And grocery stores don’t have much storage space. They rely on frequent deliveries from their distribution centers. So their back stock of TP will go quickly too.
And what’s in each delivery is based on long experience with the neighborhood, the season, etc., so they aren’t designed for this kind of unusual bump in demand.
And when people see empty shelves, they very reasonably assume other people are hoarding it, so they buy some themselves, which increases demand more.
But people aren’t pooping more than usual, and apparently factories are still making plenty of toilet paper, so I think the shortage is temporary. I imagine once supply chains have had time to react, and people relax a little, it will appear back on the shelves.
So it isn’t that people are acting so crazy, or that they believe toilet paper will protect them from coronavirus. It’s a bump in demand creating more demand, and a just-in-time supply system that needs time to react.
Another Jeff
Don’t forget, people are staying home rather than being at work, school, etc. and likely anticipating not being able to go to restaurants for lunch, and so on. So, yeah, they may be using more toilet paper and everything else they needed usually needed less of at home too. There’s a lot of ridiculous going on, but some of the buying is completely understandable and understandably more than usual.
corey wuertz
Jasper indiana
restaurants are take out only
schools have closed
people hoarding food paper goods
churches have canceled mass and gatherings
all possible factory work has been sent home to work remotely
MtnRanch
One the subject of using wipes at the store – most of these contain a form of quaternary ammonium cation that will destroy viruses and bacteria. It’s a very effective disinfectant when applied properly. That’s the catch, no one applies it properly outside of a hospital (if they even do then). Reading the label, it will tell you to thoroughly wet the surface and let it remain wet for 1-10 minutes depending on the target pathogen (I like kill them all so it’s 10 minutes). With prepackaged wipes this will work since that “cloth” is a synthetic non-woven material. With sprays, like found in a gym or a restaurant, they are often used with a paper or cloth towel. The quaternary ammonium compound then binds to cellulose and is then less available to do its disinfection work.
The casual “spritz and wipe” method is just a “feel good” effort with no sanitizing effect.
PETE
Here in Las Vegas things are looking terrible. Not the virus impact, but the economic impact. Half the strip hotels are closing tomorrow. This town is fueled by supporting the hotels and conventions and it’s all gone. Many business that support the hotels, conventions, festivals etc have laid everyone off and closed their doors.
Corey Moore
Wife works at a hospital, and is immune compromised, but should be able to work from home. That’s my primary concern. I’m a contractor at mines in the northern part of the state, and I’m just waiting to hear that we’re on hiatus. I’m currently out of town, and made a lap through two dollar stores at my wife’s request, to pick up kids Tylenol/ibuprofen/cough & cold. Apparently home town is ransacked. Fortunately I was successful, managed to get one of each at each store (there was more, but what am I supposed to do, screw somebody else’s kid out of medicine?) There were a lot of folks at the stores, several holding stuff like 10 bottles of bleach, and a lot of small town gossip going on at the register. Local hospital won’t let anyone who’s been outside this little town in the last 2 weeks come inside, apparently. Schools currently shutdown for 3 weeks, but unfortunately (for them)/fortunately (for us) my folks cancelled their latest trip back east, so they can help us kids with the grandchildren if needed. Weird times right now, for certain. Hope folks take care of each other. Appreciate this post, Stu, good luck with the entertainment lol I’ve got an old railroad tie that I taught my oldest how to use drills and impacts with (about a thousand wood screws in that thing) and he enjoyed making measurements and marks for me to cut and make a ghetto-jenga as I call it lol
Andy
We just had a shelter in place issued until April 3. We’re temporarily home schooling my 15 year old,and enjoying a nice 3 week unpaid vacation. That’s what I get for working for myself.
Bruce Pierce
Stores around Louisville Kentucky are just about wipeout.
928er
Made a run to the grocery store this afternoon, here in Sonoma County, mainly to pick up a pork shoulder for carnitas.
Found no fresh meat, no eggs, and LOTS of bare shelves and long lines. Apparently, people are suddenly freaking out.
Listened to several press conferences over the past several days by our Governor and was very impressed by the competency of our local government as opposed to the “everything is wonderful and it’s not my fault” response from the orange house.
Mopar
My grandparents lived through the depression and 2 world wars. They learned to be frugal, and to use prosperous times to prepare for lean ones. They passed that onto their kids and grandkids. While I don’t wash and fold aluminum foil and save it in a drawer like my grandmother did, we’re not in panic mode. I also married a country gal. 2 weeks without being able to go shopping? That’s normal food on the shelves here. 4 weeks? Dinner might not be spectacular, but we won’t be hungry.
Job wise, it’s weird. I’m a municipal Parks supervisor in a town fairly close to one of the hotspots. Most of our work normally revolves around supporting school/youth sports and activities. Right now those are all suspended indefinitely. The rest of the town is pretty much shut down. Not doing as much work as usual, but at least we still have a job. I feel really bad for all the people who own or work in the bars, theaters, gyms, casinos, restaurants, etc. Those have been ordered closed until at least May.
Marcelo
Same here from Montevideo, Uruguay.
New president on march 1.
Since last friday we had closed borders for strangers, a call center for info ,and in case you need a doctor, they visited you in the next 12 hs.
In all the cities in my coutry is the same: a few people in the streets, not so much toilet paper and cleaning stuff, and a lot of people at home.
My wife works attending public behind a thick glass, but less hours than normal.
I am staying home with my daughter until she comes, then i got to work, half a day.
ALL Schools are closed for at least 15 days.
We are here just leaving summer, and we know its going to get worse before getting beter, but at least i am at home a lot more than usual…
Coach James
I’m in North Carolina. Schools closed until at least March 27th. Governor today closed all bars and restaurants except for carryout. Many gyms and similar businesses are closed.
Panic buying nonsense goes on. If people bought their normal, plus just a bit more, there would be plenty for everyone. I was at Dollar General last week buying Borax, and the lady in front of me was buying 96 rolls of TP for just her and her son.
I don’t get the massive water buying. Turn on the faucet and get water. One person said they were buying every case they could because “If the power goes out, my well doesn’t work.” Someone reminded her that the virus wasn’t affecting the power grid, but she said she didn’t care.
Frustrating to me is who to believe. First, the terror the press and politicians are creating. Then I see articles written by people from Harvard Medical School and doctors that specialize in viruses and transmittable diseases that say this is way too much fear and panic and the virus is not nearly as serious as it is being made out to be. One doctor mentioned the 2017-2018 flu season with 45 million cases in the US, 960,000 hospitalized and 80,000 dead and there was not anywhere this much panic.
I worry about a lot of small businesses that are now forced to close and may not survive. Then the news stories pushing a political agenda.
Stuart
What I read earlier is that this virus is “as easily transmitted as the common cold, but as deadly as a heart attack.”
In contrast to the flu, they’re finding that some or even a lot of people are catching and transmitting the virus while only developing mild symptoms. But, those that develop moderate symptoms might require hospitalization and severe symptoms can require ventilators and ICU treatment. They’re also saying that the virus is transmittable before symptoms appear, contributing to rapid spread.
The news over the past few days was about how we need to slow down transmission to avoid hospitals being overloaded. ICU beds are a limited resource. Ventilators are a limited resource. Healthy healthcare
workers are a limited resource. Authorities are saying that if transmission were to continue unabated, the needs for ventilators and ICU beds will very greatly outnumber hospitals’ capabilities to care for those with severe life-threatening symptoms. A not-insignificant percentage of the population is at risk of developing severe symptoms. Mortality rates would only increase if or when hospitals become over-burdened.
There’s a lot of BS in the news these days, but they’re right in saying that it’s better to be over-prepared than neglectful. We won’t know whether these lockdown measures are proportionate and appropriate until after everything passes and either a vaccine or effective treatment are developed, successfully tested, and distributed.
When a snow storm is hyped up, schools close, advisories are issued, and nothing happens, we get annoyed. When no preparations are made, things are so much worse. We won’t know if these current measures are an over-reaction until after the storm passes.
People panic-shop because this is a scary and unprecedented situation. It’s easy to worry about little things, such as buying enough toilet paper, than trying to comprehend the larger situation.
There’s also the question about what officials are not telling us.
Things are going to be hard on small businesses and many individuals, and even large companies aren’t immune to hardships. The best we can hope to do right now is come together and help each other the best we can.
RKA
Thank you Stuart! You encapsulated every single point that was on my mind. I do hope these drastic measures will leave us looking back and saying “that’s it?!”, but some of the information and the fact that Italy isn’t yet past the spike leaves me feeling like we have a tough road ahead.
RKA
One more thing…for those that use the time at home to get a few projects completed around the house or just spend the time working on hobby projects, be extra careful. You may not want to find yourself going to the ER in 2 weeks to get fixed up (and they may not want you there either). So be safe.
Jtmarlin
HD in my area was limiting people in the store to 50 today. Down to 1 combined entrance/exit ath the contractor entrance. Store associates were scanning items at checkout.
ktash
Home Depot, Lowes, Menards would do more business if they could have phoned in orders ready for pickup curbside. The lines are usually slow and crowded, but that would solve problems and expose them to fewer people for less time.
DRT
There were exactly 3 cars, including mine, in the parking lot of my local HD this morning (Saturday). I have never seen that few cars in the lot, at any time or any day of week. 3 customers in the entire store. Me, a woman buying 6 gallons of bleach, and somebody else. The economic impact of this pandemic is going to be staggering.
Frank D
I genuinely fear for the countless people in retail, hospitality, transportation … whether as employee or partner or small business owner.
This is like an invisible hurricane with unknown path and severity. It is coming, will hit every state, slow moving, … except it comes via infected people, their cough/sneeze, objects they touch.
The number one thing I want to see is MANDATORY hand sanitizer terminals at the entrance of any business or office that is open. At employee entrances. …
Clean your hands going in.
Wipe the cart.
Clean your hands going out.
Our local Walmart has tried to do that, to some extent, but apparently keeps running out of lotion.
Our Home Depot has nothing.
And of course there is not enough sanitizer to go around.
Price gouging.
Probably can’t buy new dispensers and refills.
Anyhow. I’d like a more medical office like approach in public spaces during these times.
fred
Robert Burns ( The best laid scheme o’ mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley ) and even earlier Thomas â Kempis (Homos proponit, sed Deus disponit) – had something to say about the vagaries of natural events and man’s inability to fully control them.
We are living through the beginnings of an event that will likely change how everyone will think about things for some time to come.
I have faith that we as a nation/world will get through this – but there will be hardships for many. Being in what I’m told is a high risk group – I’m hunkering down – but I am still mindful that we need to look out for opportunities to help where we can and those we can.
ktash
Thank you Fred, good reminder. I’m in a high-risk group though I don’t feel like it. Things have really closed down a lot. I have some unused disposable N-95 dust masks I bought in a package of 20. I plan to donate them to the hospital. Wish I had more. I have some other non-disposable ones with filters I use most in the shop. These were backups. I’ll just reuse the filters that I have for a while. I hope the disposables become available soon for the health care providers who need them.
It’s weird to have an emergency where there’s not much you can do but stay home. I hear staying home helps the health care workers. Lots of yard work and woodworking to be done, though. It’s odd. I jealously guard hours I get to spend in the shop and don’t want to do outside things much. Now I have nearly unlimited time to do that, I wish I could go out and do things. I do have some work from home, but only a small amount.
Kevin
Lee Valley has free shipping. Some people may have extra money due to so many things cancelled so maybe this is an attempt to take advantage of the situation. Of course there are likely many more people out of work that will have financial difficulties. At least it is not a scam and you can not get Covid-19 from shopping on-line.