By Jessica Anstice
Shelves are bare, toilet paper’s rare, and some would think the world is ending.
Amidst the international coronavirus outbreak, shoppers have cleared the supermarket shelves of loo paper, healthcare items and food staples.
Pakenham supermarkets, including major retailers Coles and Woolworths, are evidently struggling to keep up with the high demand.
But the supermarket spokespeople insist there is “definitely no need to panic-buy”.
“Coles has increased the number of deliveries to stores this week to improve availability on popular products, such as long-life pantry staples and healthcare items and our teams are working hard to fill the shelves as quickly as possible,” a Coles spokesperson said.
“Like many retailers, we currently have a shortage of some antibacterial handwashes and hand sanitiser products due to high customer demand.
“We are continuing to work with our suppliers to maintain availability for customers.”
A Woolworths spokesperson said the chain store is working closely with its suppliers to ramp up deliveries and production to maintain stock availability for its customers.
“We’ve seen a sharp increase in demand for long life pantry items and household staples in recent days, which has led to partial stock shortages across some of our stores,” the Woolworths spokesperson said.
“We apologise to customers for the inconvenience and thank them for their patience.”
Pakenham resident Nathan Hogan said he has “never seen anything like this” and believes shoppers are “most definitely overreacting”.
Mr Hogan said his 38-week pregnant wife went to three different Coles and Aldi stores across Pakenham searching for hand sanitiser and to no avail, on Wednesday 3 March.
“I went to Woolies to look for hand sanitiser after she got home distressed,” he explained.
“We want the sanitiser for hygiene purposes for the newborn and cold/flu symptoms – not for coronavirus.
“Coronavirus has a far less effective kill potential than the influenza virus.”
Not only did the Hogan family fail to find hand sanitiser, but with toilet paper on their shopping list this week, they were more so out of luck.
“We just happen to be low on toilet paper in the household. We were certainly not stocking up like some other people,” he said.
“I got two packs of four rolls, eight rolls in total, to get by until supermarkets get more stock.
“I witnessed people leave with a box of tissues paper, for blowing your nose, and I don’t mean a carton that has 220 tissues or whatever – I mean a box containing 30 odd tissue cartons.”
Pakenham mother Susie Barata says the ordeal is “absurd”.
“Seriously, why the panic?!” she said.
“I went to purchase sanitiser for my daughter who is unwell and all the stores and chemists have sold out.
“They shouldn’t be stocking up on toilet paper, they need to stock on tissues to be honest.”
Pakenham resident Brian Meneilly was surprised to see not one roll of toilet paper at Coles in Lakeside on Wednesday.
“I personally think the public need to calm down,” Mr Meneilly said.
“Panic buying at this stage is not needed as we have only a handful of coronavirus cases in Australia so far.
“I don’t think having a month’s worth of toilet paper is going to help you.”
But not all believe it’s the shoppers stripping the selves – Stephen Fellon (jokingly) believes it is a conspiracy the major supermarkets have developed to “increase dunny roll sales”.
