Critical care nurse Dawn has pleaded for the public to "stop it" after being faced with empty.....

[steve2470]

Critical care nurse Dawn has pleaded for the public to "stop it" after being faced with empty supermarket shelves following a 48-hour shift.

Link to tweet

Hopefully people around the world will listen to her.

eta:

Link to tweet

[LizBeth]

1. I hit two stores today. Trader Joes and Safeway. How are your stores?

I am in Oregon. The shelves were good. Got oranges and avocados. Plenty of produce out. Meats section full. Cheese and egg section stocked. The only areas scarce were canned goods, rice, pasta and even with that I was able to get what I needed.

Lots of people working hard and fast to fill the shelves.

How are others areas?

[Lancero]

9. This was from Monday in Ar, Kroger wasn't totally ripped apart. 10box though...

Was near decimated.

Kroger was a bit low on some fresh fruits - No bananas to be found - and they were running out of apples. TP was of course all gone, and milk was down the the bottom row. All in all, not awful. They were running a 5x coupon deal on their digital coupons, and they were mostly stocked for the ones I'd wanted.

10box though had a lot of empty shelves. Everything in their dairy section was gone, baking goods were down to about half, as was their canned stuff. Bananas were all gone too, so I guess someone wanted to make all the banana bread? Plenty of packages of bottled water though thats mostly because they put a limit 2 on em.

No idea for Harps, but I'd imagine the local Dol-Gens would all be similarly out of bottled water, dairy stuff, tp, and canned meats.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder what Dollar Tree looks like?

[LizBeth]

10. Thanks. I have a fascination with this for whatever reason. Blows my mind in ways.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Kent, WA. My local Safeway has done OK...

some shortages, paper products and such. Good on produce and other foodstuffs for the most part.

[BigmanPigman]

3. I think people are hoarding because they don't know

how long the lock down/stay at home will last for. Also, they aren't sure that food production will continue for much longer. Since we are being told to not go out people are buying lots of supplies. People should stay inside and not infect others and limit any shopping severely.

I wish I had more storage space in my apt than just my oven and under the bed. Maybe I can use the trunk of my car.

[LizBeth]

11. I finally went yesterday to buy stuff to last. Last time going out. Had not gone out for days.

I forgot something on about every recipe so I am instacart'ng the stuff I forgot so I do not have to go out again. I have never used the service.

[BigmanPigman]

15. My neighbor just told me about instacart

and added a few things I could use to her list. We both have been self quarantining since we are at risk. We both got permanently ill from teaching.

[LizBeth]

16. Ah, well, I am just old and weak lungs. My oldest insisted I try. Good. The problem now,

I did not make it to get a delivery today. Going to be Monday. I just heard that Monday our Gov is talking everyone stay home! I wonder if I will get time to get groceries. Surely they will declare and give people a couple days.

[BigmanPigman]

17. Grocery stores stay open.

I am in CA and the states who are shutting down are leaving grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, gas stations, essentials are open. People were not following social distancing rules enough.

[LizBeth]

18. You are in Calif. And you still have instacart. So you kinda answered my question. lol.

Thanks. Oregon so if you shut down, not unheard of we will.

[treestar]

4. Why don't they enforce a limit?

I asked someone at the store about TP, he said they have no limit as to how much per person, but they ought to.

[LizBeth]

13. Yes they should. Out of PT. Not end of world but I would like a two roll pack.

[hlthe2b]

5. This is a REAL problem. Every ER & ICU (esp night shift) is facing this with staff.

Stores are only open limited hours and by the time these exhausted health care workers can finally shower and change, get to the store before they collapse into bed, the damned shelves are EMPTY.

[spinbaby]

6. People are treating shopping as a sport

People on Facebook are bragging about how much stuff they got at how many stores. One person I saw claimed they needed to shop every day because they need “fresh food.”

Just stop it.

That said, there are grocery delivery services and it would be a good thing for them to get together to prioritize healthcare workers and deliver at odd hours if needed

[ck4829]

7. K&R. Hopefully medical professionals from researchers in labs to nurses in the thick of it

will speak up more.

[steve2470]

8. more evidence in the UK

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

12. .

[RobinA]

14. I Have To Work

as well, and have a similar problem. I can't just shop all day. I am in PA where last night we went into enforced lockdown. As with other announcements, it was followed by a run on stores. On my lunch I went to Target and a grocery store. Stores were actually in worse shape than last Friday.

I have a theory that going into a store and looking down the paper (or any) aisle and seeing empty shelves from the front of the store to the back creates anxiety and people think "I won't be able to get toilet paper when I need it, I better start stockpiling." I think people will not stop hoarding it until they can walk into a store and see shelves of toilet paper. Or whatever. This same store had no poultry and no red meat with the exception of some corned beefs (expensive) and pork (there's always a little pork left). Canned goods were sparse, I didn't look at bread, but last weekend bread was hard to come by unless you wanted whole wheat English muffins. Beans either canned or dry, forget about it.

It's scary to not be able to walk into a grocery store and put your hands on what you want or need, and I believe that's what is causing this behavior. I didn't start hoarding, I went to buy TP when I was getting close to needing it. I couldn't get it. THEN I started making sure I had more toilet paper than I would generally stock. It's still not obtainable, so I'm thinking I should have even more.

From an evolutionary standpoint, none of our genes would still be on this planet if we didn't have the an embedded urge to stockpile when we sense a shortage. And yes, I know toilet paper isn't technically food, but in our society you aren't going to get very far if eschewing toilet paper, so it's probably linked pretty close to survival, or at least security, in our heads.