Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[mordant]

tHE eND OF THE wORLD
Link to a photo album I made today.  I made one more run to pick up some last minute greens and eggs and such, and it was craaazy out there.  Last weekend, everything here was still pretty normal, just CostCo out of TP, and low TP at other shops.

Today, my local Albertsons looked like this:








The store still had plenty of stock in a general way (though I notice it was mostly the junkfood sitting untouched), but some things were either completely wiped out, or very close.
No liquid soap, no sanitizer or rubbing alcohol.  No TP, but still some tissues and paper towels.
No Ramen Noodles.  Other pasta (and sauces) and dried beans and rice mostly gone.
Oatmeal almost entirely gone.
Fresh meats severely dented.
Frozen potatoes and veggies severely dented.
Canned meats and pickles and stuff, severely dented.
Flour, sugar and other basic baking supplies, very low.
Canned veg, canned milk, and bottled water very low.
Certain produce (bananas, oranges, lemons, potatoes) very low.

The parking lot was full, and people were parking along the curb and behind the store, even.

People were super polite, waiting patiently and not getting close to each other.  Lines were insanely long, all cashiers open.  Every department had people actively stocking shelves while people just as actively stripped them.  The clerk told me this was the third day, and it never ended.  Open til close, it looked like this.  Poor employees were all run ragged.  
The produce manager was out helping the cart guy, because he couldn't keep up.  One person brought in carts as fast as shoppers were taking them, and they weren't allowing any shoppers to touch the used carts until another guy wiped them down.  This station was set up next to the carts.



I actually got a little emotional just watching it all, even though my family is fine, just because it was the first time it FELT like an epidemic to me.

Our local Wegmans has closed from midnight to 6am daily (normally open 24/7) and I'm told the shelves are getting kind of sparse. Wegmans, for those who aren't familiar with it, is sort of like Whole Foods meets a typical grocery super-duper market, about 30,000 square feet of both organics / health foods and ordinary groceries plus a big eatery.

I will have to check out the neighborhood grocery tomorrow and see how it's doing.

I'm getting reports of empty shelves from both Phoenix and the Seattle / Olympia area where a lot of my client's employees and contractors are concentrated.

One of my colleagues is trying to swing by Wal-Mart to see what he can find there. He lives just miles from the Kirkland epicenter.