Behavior Patterns in Panic Buying

[michelek]

We walked right in to a small Target store and it only had five customers and a full staff stocking the micro-store, we found $260 worth of everything we needed (except frozen vegetables and tp). Small stores in neighborhoods where people don’t have the cash to stock up are the place to go!

 

[Just_Steve]

I'm happy to say I haven't stepped in any store since last Friday.

I will run out of fresh strawberries and blueberries first. I cooked up some chicken (made Chicken Marsala) so that it doesn't go to waste (will freeze it as soon as it is done cooling down). Salad will go next, although I have some Aerogarden salad greens coming along. Plenty of everything else.

I did order some powdered eggs (Augason Farms™ Dried Eggs Emergency Food) from Cabela's on March 1st. After Brewer told me that Augason's parent was backlogged for months, I figured I would never get them. But happy day? I've gotten a tracking notice (and see it is sitting for a couple days now at my local FedX waiting for that literally last 5 miles to go). (Note: Cabela's now shows as sold out.)

You lucky dog. You get a tracking number and I get this:

Hi Steven,
Thanks for shopping at Cabela's! We've got all your order details right here. Once we've shipped your order, you'll get an email with your shipping and tracking information.

Order Confirmation
Order Number: xxxxxxxxx
Order Date: 3/1/2020

Remember, if you purchased multiple items, they may arrive separately.

Thanks!
Cabela's Customer Service

 

[brewer12345]

I am just staying out of stores to avoid infection, so I have no idea what the situation is although I hear it is thin stock. We are gradually running out of fresh vegetables after which we will switch to canned, frozen and dried. I planted the raised beds on the early side with lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula and turnips to hopefully get some fresh greens in a few weeks and we know how to forage edible greens as they come up. Fresh fruit is almost gone and we will miss it, but not the end of the world. The weak link for us is milk because the kids go through so much of it, so I signed up for a relatively pricey dairy delivery service with a standing order of three gallons a week starting next Thursday. Other than that, it will be a very long time before I am forced to try to buy food. It has always been important to me not to be dependent on a fragile just in time system for food, so I am not.

Woe is me, I was reduced to eating a rodent tonight! (Corned beaver as part of St. Patrick's day dinner, heh.)

 

[NW-Bound]

Sign of the times: a note posted on the toilet door of a cafe shop in Florida.

 

[jazz4cash]

When I was out on Tuesday, I stopped at 3 stores looking for my favorite canned soup. I finally found it but the soup isle was slim pickins and obvious that campbell's is out of favor. Beans, rice, and produce wiped out. No TP. Long lines. Palpable sense of angst although everyone was generally calm, patient, and friendly. The store and bar closing for later that day had just been announced. Long, long lines but no obvious hoarding.

I just got a hand basket instead of a cart and queued up in the self check line which was long and one machine was out of order. I looked over and noticed a full service line with no one in it. I looked again to verify the aisle open light was "on" and hopped over there ASAP. A bunch of heads turned and some laughed while others frowned. There were 4 people instantly queued up behind me.

People see a line and just automatically fall in.

 

[HadEnuff]

I went to local Publix yesterday afternoon....no meat, no chicken, no pork....but the Family Size Oreos were BOGO!

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time when the stock person opened up some cartons of TP...got me 9 rolls!

 

[MichaelB]

DW went food shopping yesterday afternoon. Her thought was the store would be crowded in the morning, fewer shoppers after lunch, and she was right. Not a lot of shoppers, she was able to get everything she wanted, except eggs.

 

[EastWest Gal]

We did our lock down shopping the last week in January. I think we should have a contest to see who shopped first.

You win. I did mine in February. I added to it last week when our store saw fit to sell grass fed strip steaks on a 2-for-1 sale with NO LIMIT.

If I have to go out for any reason, I swing by the store and check for items I’d like to have extra. I only take what I need to stay stocked though. I’m not greedy.

 

[Pellice]

Different items become iconic in different situations. TP is an easy thing to panic-buy because you WILL end up using it, and it stores relatively easily. Milk, in this situation, not so much. Bread takes up freezer space. I noticed flour shelves emptied out in Costco, bought by people who haven't baked anything since making some cookies as teenagers.

Bottled water is inexplicable to me. I drink my tap water. I've always drunk my tap water. There is no problem with access to tap water. Taste? You get used to the taste of whatever water you are drinking. This is an emergency situation. Why prioritize bottled water?

My job sometimes involved work with countries in the former Soviet Union. Panic - or crowd - buying was a way of life. My colleagues told me that if they saw a line, they got on it, figuring that whatever it was, they needed.

 

[jim584672]

I don't understand why all the bananas and breads are gone. These are not long lasting storage items. They need to be eaten in a few days. I guess they are gorging themselves or something.

 

[JoeWras]

DW went food shopping yesterday afternoon. Her thought was the store would be crowded in the morning, fewer shoppers after lunch, and she was right. Not a lot of shoppers, she was able to get everything she wanted, except eggs.

We haven't been out for a week. But my good neighbor went out on a run yesterday and got both eggs and fresh produce for us. She said they had good stock on both, not massive, but decent.

She did say the store is 100% cleaned out on anything paper.

What is up with this? Is everyone going to fill their entire basements with paper products?

 

[Lewis Clark]

I went to local Publix yesterday afternoon....no meat, no chicken, no pork....but the Family Size Oreos were BOGO!

Whew! At least the critical supplies are both in stock and on sale. : )

 

[Mdlerth]

The Big Questions is: Are we bison or lemmings?

I just got a hand basket instead of a cart and queued up in the self check line which was long and one machine was out of order. I looked over and noticed a full service line with no one in it. I looked again to verify the aisle open light was "on" and hopped over there ASAP. A bunch of heads turned and some laughed while others frowned. There were 4 people instantly queued up behind me.

People see a line and just automatically fall in.

This is also the explanation for the panic hoarding, the ludicrous stock market volatility, and other impulsive behaviors which may follow. Humans are herd animals.

 

[ransil]

When to Walmart for a few items with the empty shelves the stickers were having a hard time figuring out where stuff goes

 

[folivier]

Herd mentality. Reminds me of a trip to Disneyworld with our kids years ago. One tip book said to get in the line to the left. Every event we went to there was a long line and an empty line to the left. We walked right up as if we were VIPs while the others in the long lines watched us!

 

[jcretire77]

A bit off topic, but a friend who works at Cabelas said that gun sales are going crazy and they are out of 9, 40, 38, 45 and 357 ammo. His comment "stupid people"

 

[JoeWras]

Herd mentality. Reminds me of a trip to Disneyworld with our kids years ago. One tip book said to get in the line to the left. Every event we went to there was a long line and an empty line to the left. We walked right up as if we were VIPs while the others in the long lines watched us!

It is a strong behavior! A decade ago we were in Yosemite, and the parking lot was a mess. Lines of cars, yet plenty of openings. DW was driving, so I got out and started directing traffic. Once the first car moved, everyone followed! It was magic and actually quite powerful. I can see how those in authority get drunk on the power. Seriously.

Later that day, at lunch, a little boy came up to me and asked if I was a fireman. Turns out I was wearing a bright yellow jacket and a non-descript hat that looks similar to a ranger hat. When I was directing traffic, people thought I had authority. I had none, it was just a coincidence. But to this day, I still get a little rush as to how easy it was to move that heard.

 

[jollystomper]

I don't understand why all the bananas and breads are gone. These are not long lasting storage items. They need to be eaten in a few days. I guess they are gorging themselves or something.

You can freeze them to last longer. We do this even in normal times with bread. We tend to eat it so slowly that it sometimes gets moldy. We freeze it and thaw out slices as needed.

 

[jollystomper]

It has become a "guilty pleasure" of mine to go into the stores just to see what sections have been emptied out. At one store yesterday, they amazingly had maybe 10 large packages of TP (and not one rushing to get them), but their Coca-Cola section was practically empty. Either folks in this area cannot go without their Coke, or the Coke delivery person is not showing up.

 

[JoeWras]

It has become a "guilty pleasure" of mine to go into the stores just to see what sections have been emptied out.

Just asking. Should we be going out just cruising around at this time?

 

[jollystomper]

Just asking. Should we be going out just cruising around at this time?

I am out on errands anyway, and taking precautions.

 

[Gumby]

I went to the grocery at 9am this morning and found the place almost empty of shoppers. They had not a speck of toilet paper, no sliced bread, only one or two gallons of bottled water and very little pasta or sauce. They were a little low on chicken. Everything else in the store they had in abundance, so I was able to get milk, eggs, cheese, fresh fruit and vegetables with no problems.

While I was checking out, I asked the one cashier on duty how things had been going. She said it had been a madhouse for about the last 5-6 days and today was the first slow one. Apparently the people all bought what they needed and have not yet run out again.

 

[Spock]

One pattern shift that has to occur is people are going to need to buy more food from retail grocery stores.
Kids are out of school, no school lunch using the food normally bought by the cafeteria from commercial sources, so kids need to be fed at home with food that the grocery store.
Restaurants have been ordered closed (here at least), so you can't eat out if you wanted to, so those meals also have to come from the retail grocery store.
While you're in the grocery store, and you see some empty shelves, you pick up "a little extra" (hoarding).
Nobody buys much more than 1 extra meal to-go when eating at a restaurant...

It becomes wack-a-mole... authorities think they are solving a problem by closing schools and restaurants and all they are doing is increasing pressure on already stressed grocery store supply chains.

 

[JoeWras]

One pattern shift that has to occur is people are going to need to buy more food from retail grocery stores.
...
It becomes wack-a-mole... authorities think they are solving a problem by closing schools and restaurants and all they are doing is increasing pressure on already stressed grocery store supply chains.

This is really an excellent point. Seriously. I haven't heard this concern from any of these authorities making shoot-from-the-hip decisions.

Sign Spock up for the task force!

 

[CaptTom]

...so I got out and started directing traffic. Once the first car moved, everyone followed! It was magic and actually quite powerful. I can see how those in authority get drunk on the power. Seriously.

I was actually trained to direct traffic once (long story.) I've used that skill a couple of times; simple things like someone stuck or a delivery on my (busy) road. It's amazing how a posture of authority, and firm directions, can be effective. Most people are lazy and will gladly let someone else take charge.

It has become a "guilty pleasure" of mine to go into the stores just to see what sections have been emptied out.

I have to admit to that, too. I do take precautions; disinfecting wipes, hand sanitizer, social distance, not touching anything or my face, etc.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime mass experiment in human behavior. Fascinating.

Kimberly-Clark, a producer of TP and Kleenex, has been running its plants 24/7 to meet demand. But the fact is that unless people's bathroom frequency changes, they still use the same amount of TP.

This means that eventually, when people start to use the TP they hoard and stop buying, the TP plants will throttle down to a lower speed. Feast and famine.

I read that many manufacturers aren't ramping up production, because they don't want to be caught with too much excess stock when the craziness has passed.