Panic Buying: Stores Cleaned out of Cleaning Supplies

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge across the globe, and more and more countries enter lockdown and halt all but essential services, there has been a huge shift in the buying habits of consumers, which many physical and online retailers have seemingly been ill-equipped to deal with.

Panic Buying: Stores Cleaned out Of Cleaning Supplies

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge across the globe, and more and more countries enter lockdown and halt all but essential services, there has been a huge shift in the buying habits of consumers, which many physical and online retailers have seemingly been ill-equipped to deal with.

Let’s take a look at some of the items that have become popular since the pandemic first hit, what items you should be picking up to help stem the flow of coronavirus, and how supply shortages of cleaning products could affect you in the future.

What are People Panic Buying?

Since the end of January, when the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, consumer habits have shifted to focus primarily on items that could potentially assist in the stalling of the spread of the virus, such as cleaning products like disinfectants as well as personal hygiene products.

Medical masks, gloves and hand sanitizers, as well as items like toilet paper, were the first things to start flying off the shelves as consumers took to clearing out their local stores for these items as well other cleaning and janitorial supplies.

In what has been dubbed ‘panic buying’, consumers have taken this purchasing to the extreme, which has resulted in many retailers periodically running out of many of these items and, in some cases, not being able to restock. Even online retailers like Blue Dog Supplies.com, who stock thousands of different cleaning supplies, can have trouble keeping everything in stock.

Empty Shelves and What They Mean

Luckily for us, empty shelves in big chain supermarkets and stores don’t necessarily mean we need to panic because these items are not available. In many cases, it simply means that there is a bottleneck of these items. Customers are clearing out shelves of popular items so fast that they are not restocked immediately. As retailers struggle to shift their own buying habits, a stressed supply chain has been the result. However, despite its current state, experts say that the system should see some relief soon.

Supply chain disruptions are not as uncommon as we may think, and retailers have a number of measures in place so that these types of issues are normally only a temporary setback. For example, big chain retailers don’t rely on single sources for their buying and have networks that stretch across the globe, which means they do have options should specific items run out at local suppliers.

So, What Items Should You Stock Up On?

According to Dr. Aaron Glatt, chief of infectious disease at Mount Sinai South Nassau in New York, standard cleaning products that will kill other viruses should do fine against the novel coronavirus and he doesn’t recommend anything beyond routine cleaning in a typical household, unless someone in your household has been diagnosed with the new virus or is suspected to have COVID-19.

In this case, you should regularly disinfect the surfaces they come into contact with frequently and try to designate them their own bathroom if possible. In terms of hand sanitizers, solutions made with at least 60% alcohol are recommended.

While consumers may be concerned about empty shelves and out-of-stock websites, many large retail owners have advised that people don’t need to panic just yet, and experts have noted that the key to remedying this situation in terms of basic supplies is not making more of these items available, but rather relearning how to distribute supply.

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Interesting related article: “What is the Coronavirus?“