The Panic of 2020

I'm not sure how the panic started.  There's a virus called coronavirus or COVID-19 that got its start in China and is spreading around the world.  When it started hitting the US, government officials from the top to local politicians began telling people to stay home, to "shelter in", in an attempt to prevent  the spread of it.  In many places, restaurants, bars and gathering places are all either closed, or open for take-out only. 

But what happened next has been most shocking to me.  People began shopping at my BigBox store and buying up loads of toilet paper.  Then paper towels and cleaning supplies.  The next step was buying the rest of groceries in bulk quantities so that our shelves are left with nothing on them!!

This is something I've never seen before. 

At my store, when we unload a trailer from our grocery side, we dispense toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water, and hand sanitizer, one per customer.  The only time I've seen this mentality is during a Black Friday sale!!





Empty shelves .....
Empty aisles .....
shocking!

I did my own grocery shopping six days ago,
and it hadn't begun.  Today I had to shop at
6 am in order to buy a package of steaks.




It's been a hell of a year this week!