AUSTIN • American consumers awoke in the past week to the coronavirus threat and are beginning to display a symptom of the illness seen in Asia and Europe – hoarding.

Nothing in the United States yet resembles what Italy witnessed in recent days – supermarket shelves were stripped bare and videos on social media showed consumers coming to blows over bags of pasta.

But there is unquestionably a growing sense of urgency in people to stock up on staples and prepare for lengthy home quarantines.

“I’m buying some flu therapy and painkillers – If I wait until next week, there may be nothing left,” said Mr Dean McKnight, an engineer in Austin, Texas. He was at the H-E-B supermarket, where shelves were emptied of some types of medication, primarily flu treatments for children.

Panic purchasing of masks and other personal protective gear has been seen. But there is also a looming threat to retail across the board, analysts said.

Several major retailers – including Walmart and Target – could see supply chains badly hit by the virus outbreak, and that could result in some empty store shelves from April, Wells Fargo Securities analyst Ed Kelly wrote in a research note.

This is because those stores operate on a just-in-time inventory model and are highly dependent on China, where supply chains have been badly disrupted, he wrote.

Stockpiling in states like Hawaii and Minnesota was spurred by messages from state health departments urging residents to buy supplies of non-perishable foods, prescription medication and sanitary supplies.

The advice contradicted the message from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which said there was no need for healthy Americans to stock up.

“When there’s an absence of a good, strong and reassuring official voice, people will get more upset and start doing this magical thinking,” said Dr Robyn Gershon, a clinical professor of epidemiology at New York University.

On Friday in Honolulu, Hawaii, retired telecommunications worker Duane Tanouye, 62, waited outside a Costco store with more than 200 others. “Nobody’s really panicking, but there’s a lot more people than normal,” he said. Stores in Hawaii had begun limiting how much consumers could buy of some products, such as toilet paper, he added.

Minnesota’s health department said buying supplies now would make it easier to stay at home if family members fall sick, or if people want to avoid sick people in their community. Hawaii told families to prepare as they did for hurricanes, with a 14-day supply of food, water and other necessities.

At Cid’s Food Market in Taos, New Mexico, people were filling shopping carts with sacks of rice, beans and oats. Mr Jason Robnett, a chef and jewellery designer, said: “If everybody just sits still until the readiness comes up to the right level, that’s better than running willy-nilly in every direction.”

Panic buying was also seen in other countries. In Japan, for example, some people were caught on video getting violent while waiting to buy face masks in Yokohama.

In New Zealand, large crowds of shoppers turned up at some Auckland supermarkets after the country confirmed its first coronavirus case on Friday, RNZ reported.

REUTERS, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

SEE WORLD

Have a question on the coronavirus outbreak? E-mail us at [email protected]

To get alerts and updates, follow us on Telegram.

Source: Read Full Article