Definitely did not intend to call you out in an individual way, Bennett. We all need to act responsibly, and your sister is doing that. I'm advocating for ALL of us to act responsibly, and for many people, that means stocking up in a mindful, respectful way that leaves something for others, or sharing when it becomes apparent that we have more than we need.

I think there should be some community food- and supply-sharing boards for people to exchange excess items (especially perishables) so they don't go to waste. I know darn well that some people bought ten loaves of bread and will not be able to use it all before it gets moldy. Here's hoping they share.

I've avoided grocery stores so far. Seriously, my family could eat off what we have in our house for a month. It might not be what we want or are used to eating but we'd survive. Like Cindy said, the supply chain is still going strong so groceries are going to continue to be available. It will be interesting what happens after this is over and no one needs to buy TP or non-perishables for a year!

How are you doing, cindysmith? It took me two grocery trips to finish my list for a two-week meal plan, and on the second one, the grocery store (a supermarket, but a small neighborhood one) had to have security guards managing the lines. There were probably 50 people who were waiting in a line to nowhere before they got it all sorted.

I feel for everyone working under those conditions, and hope things calm down soon.

(ETA: photo of empty bread aisle with empty meat cooler at end)

My husband went grocery shopping yesterday and there was no chicken at all. Or celery. Or carrots.

I think groceries feel like something we can control.

It is not always rational.

But in the past I remember being told hairdressers, supermarkets and ice cream/ chocolate were recession proof. Maybe not hairdressers right now but I agree with the other ones!

Dropped by a small 24 hr grocery store after dropping DS#2 at work 5:30 am. (He works at an industrial bakery and wears what looks like a hazmat suit every day as a matter of course). I wanted to pick up generic cleaning solution because with all the spring cleaning, I’m running low. Asparagus on sale -$2.99CA a bundle, but no lemons. I looked around - no flour, but bisquick and pancake mix. Bread was being restocked. Milk, eggs. Some gaps in produce, but carrots, potatoes, oranges, apples, limes. Pork, beef, fish, chicken. Canned goods had gaps - no tomato sauce or tomato products, and no canned beans! Laundry detergent and dishwasher soap well stocked. I didn’t look for TP. As I was leaving, a big transport truck was pulling in to the parking lot.

I didn’t see anything that scared me, but have told the people I feed they may not always get their favourites and might have some surprises!

*I bought the asparagus!

I went to out local grocery store today to buy a couple things I forgot to buy on weekend. Regular line ups for the afternoon rush hour, some gaps on the shelves but bunch of store employees were restocking. I didn’t go to check TP but the rest seems fine. Also, didn’t see anyone with huge piles of stuff in their carts.

This won't be sorted in a few days. We are already scrambling to keep the basics in stock, and we are only barely succeeding and that is only because my produce manager came from the company's flagship store and knows all the secret vendors and has been working the phones like freaking mad.

Farmers cannot grow stuff fast enough to keep this up. There will be shortages, it's just a matter of when and not at all a question of 'if'. We had 3 refrigerated semi trucks this morning at 4 AM, filled with meat and eggs and milk and produce and frozen foods and it wasn't enough. Shelves were bare by lunch with very little backstock. In a very short time, all the perishables people are hoarding will be spoiled and there will be no replacements.

This level of panicked shopping is unsustainable. They cannot magically grow more food, raise and butcher more animals, or milk enough cows to keep this up. It's going to get very ugly. As an industry insider, I don't know how much longer I'm going to have a job, and I work in a recession-proof essential industry that doesn't get to close up shop. Buckle up, ladies, because we are in for a very bumpy ride.

Do y’all have an official shelter in place thing going on, Cindy?

Cindy, that's exactly what I feared.

Today while I was out, after my walkabout with my camera, I bought a little extra of a few basic things -- Trader Joe's had some packaged lentils, rice, and some "odd" pasta which I actually like anyway (chick pea spaghetti, black bean rotini, etc.). Olive oil. Vegetable stock. Pasta sauce. A couple of packages of frozen turkey meatballs, and frozen edamame. And a box of cookies. But I held back on anything more perishable because we only cook so much in a week or two for two people, ya know?

I hope people find some balance and kindness.

I believe Governor whatshisname has ordered all restaurants and bars closed. I haven't checked for the latest updates for Texas. I know that multiple 12 step workshops and committee meetings and such have been cancelled. I'm too tired and too burnt after putting in 13 hours and 40 minutes at work today with no real lunch break. We ordered pizza and ate on the fly while we scrambled to keep up with the rate at which product was flying off shelves. Our work week starts Saturday and ends Friday, and I'm already at 35+ hours. All overtime has blanket approval, so my check for this week should be pretty nice.

A quick google search shows that Governor whatshisname has activated the national guard, it's only a few cities that have shut down bars and restaurants, schools have closed, and we have community transmission of the cooties.

The cooties is cracking me up. Coworker Lauren was going to put out more cuties oranges, and what came out of her mouth was "I'm going to out out that last box of cooties" and I almost peed in my pants laughing at that one. We wandered the department stocking things laughing about the last box of cooties for a half hour. People thought we were crazy, and we had to explain that we were just punch drunk from sleep deprivation.

We did have lots of customers say "thank you" to us today, and just as many told us we were doing a great job making sure we had plenty to choose from. I pointed to Kari and told them to thank her, because she was the one making it happen. Being told "thank you" is probably the biggest factor in me actually surviving the day. 13 hours and 40 minutes frantically rail dumping product onto tables and shelves through two shipments of produce that are mostly gone because the world has gone freaking mad. 13 hours and 40 minutes. I'm eating brownies for dinner because why the he!! not, the world has gone mad.

DS#2 works at an industrial bakery where they make cake (layer cakes, pound cakes, fruitcakes, Swiss rolls) and cookies. They are due to close end of June. (DS has school plans for fall, so no great loss to him, but 120 will loose their jobs.). He just learned that another bakery in the chain that made bread, and was shut down in February, is being reopened! I know their product has been for both US and Canadian markets. This factory is about an hour to an hour and a half from the US border. I wonder if the bread is for the Canadian or the US markets - or both? The reason given for the closure was ‘lack of demand for the product’. Very curious...

i find that if i go and wait in line b4 stores open, i can get chicken and other food items. but soon after it opens, they are out. people ar buying like crazy! we have alot so we are good. only think i want more of is lysol! cant get it anywhere........i have some, but want more.

Well, I’m getting creative now since there’s nothing to buy: Nutella and matzoh...

Most of my shopping is at a local grocery store that keeps 8am to 8pm hours. I last shopped for groceries on Friday - a normal shop. I sometimes stop at a smaller 24 hour grocery store close to DS#2’s place of work - if I need something to tide me over between grocery days. Today I stopped in to pick up milk. I checked out the store, and with the exception of sanitizers, cleaning products, and frozen veg - the store was well stocked and there were pallets of products waiting to be shelved. (Pics below - 6am) A few shoppers, no line-up, 1 cashier.

Shout out to folks in the chain of food production - the makers, commercial truck drivers, grocery staff, schedulers and cleaners.

creativity is key rachylou! i have looked at peoples carts over the past week and what i see is shocking to me. junk food and frozen meals? come on people is what i want to say. be rational. buy a whole chicken, roast it, then make stock/bone broth...foods that do double duty and are healthy are better. people just need to stay home! i actually feel bad for the workers -

Yesterday was the slowest day we have had since friday, and it was still far busier than usual. We have mostly filled our empty spots in produce, but we have done it by putting out extra of what we do have in stock. Broccoli usually gets one slot, it now has 3. Same with asparagus. Other departments are looking pretty freaking bare. Good luck getting your hands on ground beef, chicken, bread, milk, eggs, canned biscuits... Our hours of operation have been greatly reduced, which is only helping a very small amount since all employees are REQUIRED to work 6 days per week and every single employee is REQUIRED to be at work on truck days. We have a confirmed case in the next county over, which means that people are definitely stocking up and some are still hoarding. Some woman bought 8 bags of carrots in one transaction.

We have no clue when we will get more paper products. We have been having to make Sophie's choice throughout the store. Our store manager got told he could only have 1 of the two major classifications of trucks delivered: perishables or grocery.he chose perishables for that delivery. Corporate is limiting stores to 1500 cases total per order (from our central warehouse system), and he is having to decide how many of those cases are allotted to each department. Department managers are having to choose how to allocate those cases. Kari has devoted most of our allotment to basics like bananas, potatoes, iceberg lettuce, cabbage, etc. That case count is brutal, because one flat of berries is 8-12 plastic containers of berries, bagged salads are 6 per crate, iceberg lettuce is 24 heads per case, and so on. Kari has been supplementing by working the phones like mad, and she is devoting most of our orders from outside vendors to more potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, and a bit of the less popular but still basic stuff like jalapenos, grapes, onions, etc. It is hard, and they have essentially eliminated cut fruit and veggies from our offerings. Kari has found sources for things like pre-cut pineapples, diced onions, diced squash, chopped cauliflower and broccoli, all in bulk; this will allow our store to continue to offer that stuff because it will drastically reduce the labor involved in making those things that sell well but got eliminated from our offerings.

I will have a 50+ hour week this week, and if it doesn't stop soon I am going to have to pull out the ADA card and force them to give me a break by having my doctor write orders for a maximum of 40 hours or even an FMLA leave of absence because my lung condition puts me in the high risk category. There's also the matter of what this kind if work week is doing to my ability to fight off any cooties I catch. Grocery employees are being ground into dust by this, and that kind of fatigue is guaranteeing that we can't fight off any infections, up to and including all of the cuts and bruises all over my body from all of the physical abuse being heaped on it. I. Cannot. Keep. This. Up. Even the young employees are being used up trying to meet this increased level of demand.

The scary part is that this isn't a sprint for employees of essential businesses. It's a marathon, and we are having to run this marathon like it's a sprint. Not only are we going to exhaust our supplies of potatoes and milk and meat, we are going to exhaust our supply of human capital. We are going to use up our supply of grocery employees and nurses and doctors and delivery drivers and and and....

Oh Cindy, you have my deepest appreciation. I hope you can stay healthy (and sane!) during all of this. I know how hard you and your teammates are working to keep everyone fed.

I honestly think it’s past time to limit how much folks buy at one time... it’s a huge mistake to let people hoard.

I live in WA state but on the opposite side from Seattle - so the more rural side. I live in a small town with a small grocery store. I have heard that managers of the small grocery stores have refused to sell to people from the "Seattle side" because they are driving over (3+ hrs) to buy supplies like TP and taking it back to Seattle to sell. Crazy! I'm really interested to know how this TP thing started!

We have been limiting quantities since Friday around lunch. It hasn't stopped the madness, it's just caused families to send each family member separately thru the line with the quantity-limited items. There is a limit of 2 bags of potatoes of any kind, and 1000 pounds (that's half a freaking ton) of potatoes are gone in just a few short hours (seriously, truck arrived at 4, store opened at 7, by lunch the bagged potatoes were gone even with each person limited to 2). Ground beef and chicken? Limit of 2 per household. However, people are sending each family member thru the line with the max # of quantity-limited items. We are limiting to 2 sanitizing items, 1 package of tp, 3 cough/cold med items... we are still running out of stuff in record short times. We got a shipment of tp today and it was gone in under an hour, and employees didn't get any. This is so demoralizing for retail grocery employees right now that it isn't funny. I'm off to search for to for my coworker who is out.

That is scandalous. We don’t even have that here tho. My mum went to a senior shopping hour... and some old guy had so much tp, it fell out of his cart...

This is unreal. It's exactly why ration books were issued during the war - on a person and HOUSEHOLD basis. People lose their minds. I am so sorry, Cindy!

My husband said the grocery store had TP yesterday. The other day when he said there was no chicken, I made pesto pasta (jarred pesto from Costco), turkey sausage, and roasted Brussel sprouts. I hadn’t cooked pasta in over a year, maybe two. I still haven’t seen any hand sanitizer.

This is all just un-freakin-real. I'm going to the grocery store in the morning for the first time since last week. Will see how much of my regular shop I can find!

My local chain store is pretty well stocked with everything except toilet paper and paper towel. You can tell certain shelves have been hit harder than usual, but it's not a desperate situation.

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18.....-permanent

https://www.delish.com/food-ne.....ronavirus/

This is one conversation I could not have even imagined just a month or so ago!
I'm in Rockville, MD outside of DC. Hadn't been to a store since last weekend, but got caught in rain on a walk last evening so asked my son to pick me up at the Safeway I was near. I went in out of curiosity, and picked up a few odd items for some new recipes I'm trying (a fennel bulb, fennel seeds. Both available). The store was extremely well-stocked except for flour, sugar, pasta, and dried beans, which I almost never use, but I am making a yummy-looking white bean and Parmesan soup in the slow cooker right now and needed a bag. Didn't check the TP or cleaning product situation. There were signs on limits on a few things - 2 dozen eggs, for one.
While in line, after unloading our cart on the conveyor, my son took one step toward the man in front of us who was paying, and he literally told my son to back off, he wasn't done. It was pretty severe. The young clerk was so stressed and exhausted, he just shook his head and said people have been yelling at him for everything, including touching their groceries!
Can only hope the acts of kindness being demonstrated during this time will cancel out this kind of behavior.

Hang in Cindy, and everyone.

I've got lucky yesterday - came in late and stumbled on TP being put on shelfs. I only took one smaller pack - it's two for one person here ( TP, water, almost anything and of course sanitizers - that I've not seen for 2 weeks ).
Trader Joe's store was doing "one person in - one out" with hands and baskets sanitized, with limited amount of people shopping at the same time ( smaller store with enough employees to control the situation ).

I've mad respect for anyone who works in those difficult times in that industry - take care of yourself, @Cindysmith, consider talking to your manager and getting much needed rest.

Cindy, hang in there. I know you're stressed and very tired. Panicking people do not help. It will be okay. One day at a time. We are here to support you, as best we can.

I live in downtown Seattle and went grocery shopping this morning at Whole Foods. I was very impressed:

• I got there at 7am but was turned away because 7am-8am is reserved for people over the age of 60. GREAT! I love that.

• Went back at 8am. Had to queue outside with social distancing. Only 50 people allowed in the store at a time. Strict control. GREAT!

• Fresh produce was replenished. Meat and fish too. Items that are less perishable were not replenished yet. Quite depleted. That will take time after hoarding and panic purchasing. There was TP. No sanitizers though. No fresh food for consumption. But I got what I needed. We are good for a while.

• No one was hoarding. People VERY calm and decent. Keeping their distance. No pushing. Silent. Being polite and level-headed. Staff was AMAZING. Doing what they could. The public was obedient.