I went to the grocery store yesterday, and the amount of heavily loaded grocery carts people were pushing around shocked me. “Are we the only house with a pantry in our neighborhood?” I wondered. I concentrated on my own shopping list and tried not to be affected by the hoarding behavior around me.
I wanted to believe the guy buying twenty cans of tuna fish had numerous cats at home, and I hoped the lady trying to buy six cases of water -even though the sign clearly stated only two per cart- had burst water pipes in her house, and only needed so much water, because she just bought a new goldfish or any other kind of swimming creature.
Human beings don’t ever disappoint, they continue to amaze me on a daily base.
My next-door neighbor is furious that she cannot buy any kind of small hand sanitizer for her purse. My smart-ass comment, reminding her that she told me five minutes ago she would not leave the house for three weeks, didn’t help either.
Looking at the shopping carts of other people made me question my own shopping list. Do we have enough food at home for two weeks? Maybe I should load up the cart a bit more? I mean everybody else is doing it, shouldn’t I?
What do they know and I don’t? And what is it with the toilet paper?
In my mind, I go over our meal plan for the coming week. Corned beef and cabbage, stir-fried rice with shrimp, beef tips with noodles, grilled chicken with squash and mushrooms, turkey meatloaf, salmon with potato salad -just to name a few. All of it is at home -frozen- just waiting to be thawed out when its time.
Perhaps I am actually the only woman in our neighborhood who doesn’t like shopping, and therefore plans meals for one or two weeks in advance? That must be it. I don’t have another explanation.
We can easily live out of the freezer for at least three weeks. Our small pantry, on the other hand, looks a bit abandoned since I threw out all the unhealthy, sodium-filled cans, and other hearth-unhealthy processed food items.
But still, we have enough to cook meals for two or three weeks. Perhaps not all of them would be fancy dinners, maybe I would even serve Austrian mustard eggs or my Grandma’s ham noodles.
Still upset about the toilet paper, I grab a few babies wipes just to be on the safe side. We have enough toilet paper at home to last for two to three weeks. Again I wonder about the other shoppers and their shopping habits.
I leave the store with the amount of food I wanted to buy, plus baby wipes.
Maybe I should have bought more tuna fish?
The happy Quitter! 
We do weekly shopping on Sundays usually and the place surprisingly was not that busy. Of course my boyfriend works retail so he can always pick things up (if there is any left) when he is on lunch or done with the day. I still am not sure why there was a run on toilet paper though!
I agree that the uncertainty over what is happening and what is coming is causing a lot of panic. And the logical thing would be to reassure the nation instead of blaming it on everyone else while stroking his own ego, but by now we know what kind of president we have,
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The real character comes through when things get rough. I suppose we all want to protect ourselves first, but many of us realize quickly that selfishness won’t get us where we need to be. Sadly, some will never get it. As for the President, he is not worth talking about.
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The media is fuelling the panic-buying frenzy. Here in the UK the shelves are bare of handwash and toilet paper. I bought baby wipes , bars of soap and shower gel instead. There’s always a way around it. We all know what to do to avoid the Coronavirus now. The press and media should just shut up about it I think. We’ll either get it or we won’t. We’ll either die from it or we won’t!
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Here in the U.S. the media has to do the job, since our government has been playing it down as a hoax, even a political stunt.
People are scared and I get it. I am in the risk group, so is my husband.
I suppose you are right. I’ll die or I won’t.
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Yes I’m in a risk group too, but hey, maybe we won’t even get it. The hype is through the roof over here because it sells newspapers.
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At least you guys get tested. Here in Ohio we don’t know. My neighbors, both in their 70’s are sick since three weeks, still no testing available. Today our governor closed the bars and restaurants, even though we “only” have 300 cases. They talk about 100K cases. Not knowing feeds the hype more than anything. I canceled all my classes today -which I hate to do. All my students understood, all but one.
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The panic now outweighs the reason. An acquaintance panicked because the shelves were stripped of masks – I offered this humble reply. “Use Your Head!” #coronavirus #Masks
https://rizziallen.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/corona-virus-mask/
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Yes, sadly it does. People panic because we don’t know the “real number” do to the lack of testing.
Loved the mask!
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Just observing human behaviour through this whole situation has been fascinating. 100 years from now historians will be talking about some of the illogical ways that people dealt with their fears and uncertainties.
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Fascinating, mind-boggling, terrifying. Future generations will learn from us. I am afraid we we will be the prime example of how not to live in more ways then one. The first generation living with total access to the internet, got it all wrong I am afraid.
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What does everyone else know that you don’t know? Nothing. That’s the problem. We’re getting all kinds of mixed signals from Washington, and Trump lost his credibility years ago. So nobody knows anything and we are left flailing.
I think people are expecting the worst, such as mandatory quarantines for everyone, like they have in Italy, or cities in lockdown, like they have in China. If we had steady leadership that would clearly show us where the lines are drawn, concerning how far the restrictions on movement are going to go to combat this virus, I think much of the panic-buying would subside.
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Not knowing the numbers, due to the lack of testing, worries us the most. I don’t blame the people. We deal with something unknown, this is going to be a worldwide crisis we have to overcome -somehow.
I agree with you, our leadership in Washington has failed us -as we knew they would.
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I was astounded too, I thought maybe I hadn’t taken this seriously enough. I just bought food like I normally do, for one week’s menus. I don’t know what I’m going to do about Monday when I’ll need to go shopping again. On the other hand, maybe the world will right itself by then.
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I didn’t add anything to our grocery list either, other than the baby wipes. 🙂
I understand why people are panicking, I wish we would get better information and not just the same “back-breaking news” over and over. Real facts
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The toilet paper shortage is out of control. I’ll be honest though, I don’t keep food at the house. We don’t cook. So, we had to go out and buy a lot of food because we were starting from zero. I’m sure people were thinking I was a crazy little hoarder.
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They do exist! 🙂 Just kidding!
I suppose some people really started from scratch yesterday, but that’s only a small percentage.
The grocery stores yesterday felt like someone had just merged Thanksgiving and Christmas.
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Hahaha!! The grocery stores were definitely nuts. I plan to not go back for weeks.
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No rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizers and face masks in my neighborhood supermarkets…. for over 2 months, actually. ( not even at WalMart and Rite-Aid…. a pharmacy store with no rubbing alcohol ? )
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I can send you some face masks, I have plenty. I use them when I stain or paint furniture. 🙂
Go to the liquor store and buy Everclear. 🙂
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