I must admit that I am not very good at this ‘shelter in place’ thing and have kind of become the family canary in the coalmine, running errands and delivering supplies to family members who need them but are self quarantined. I spent a good amount of time running errands Tuesday and Wednesday; I had a package waiting at the post office, a check I needed to deposit and burning curiosity as to the status of our local stores. I live in a very rural area, but just a short drive away is an Ace Hardware, 2 dollars stores and a smaller chain grocery store. The roads were eerily empty; I was the only one at the post office, only one at the bank, and there were only 2 other cars at the grocery store.
Toilet paper! Yes indeed, right inside the door as a special buy; toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water. The store looked fully stocked including the meat and dairy departments, fact is, the only item I found to still be missing was the Lysol Wipes everyone is hoarding. It seemed, dare I say, normal? Leaving the grocery I walked next door to one of the dollar stores which unfortunately was not as restocked as the grocery. One of the employees stated that their truck was 2 days late and they hoped to be much better stocked by the weekend.
Wednesday I had to drive to town to pick up the wife’s prescriptions, we had put the refill in a while back, but it was just now finally ready. It’s about a 45 minute drive one way so I usually try to combine as many tasks as possible when I do have to go, this time I was hoping to get in and out quickly and head back to the house without getting coughed on. The highway was all but empty with very few vehicles other than trucks, no where close to ‘normal’ traffic flow. Sadly the Walmart parking lot was quite full, not what I was hoping. The store was in better shape than during my last visit, meat and dairy nicely restocked, but still low or out of many items.
The supply chain seems to be catching up, if slowly, and replacing many items that panic buying depleted. I’m hunkered down until Saturday when I have to return to work, if we continue to stay open that is. How are things looking in your area?
Your comments are appreciated.
Prepper 365 
The TP shortage is stupid. But! Most Dearest just called and said she scored a mega pack this AM. We’re good. Still noticing canned goods are limited.
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Yea, I can understand loading up on bleach and such, but the TP and bottled water doesn’t make much sense.
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That’s an interesting question.
If you time it right (just before closing) we are finding few shoppers and the shelf stackers working flat out which translates to ‘almost’ everything we need.
As for TP?
Not being funny but SOME TP is good as part of a weekly shop.
BUT when locals were seeing trolleys full of TP for outlanders they start to react and damage has been done.
AS for bottled water.
That’s a local thing around us as come spring and into summer we get a lot of burst main supply pipes because of the heat as roads aren’t very stable around us
So we all stock up enough for two to three days. For us that’s 12 -16 litres.
AS for the hoarders? Why exactly do they stock up with ice cream?
Another friend went to the shops just before 8 am.
There was no problem in number of shoppers and shop rationing seems to be working well. In and out of the shop in 20 mins, list complete.
The same went to our third outlet and it was deserted.
Shelves had stuff but not as much.
Staples were there and all fresh.
Paper goods are still rare.
Bleach plentiful.
A HUGE sign sits on the door.
All locals are welcome.
A plain enough message.
Same time scale BUT they were only accepting CASH.
But there is a caveat.
There are still strangers in town.
They are the problem and not wanted, by anyone, and they are getting a hard ride.
Meanwhile the worst times to shop are 11am to 7pm.
Arguments are many and shop staff have had enough.
There are a lot of many generation, close knit families here, and the more feral element are openly ‘discouraging the unwanted’.
Small town law was how one resident calls it.
If the law won’t sort it, the people will.
And few will witness anything.
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