Coronavirus: Meat stripped from supermarket shelves

Meat is rapidly running out, with Coles already placing restrictions on the sought-after commodity amid coronavirus fears.

Alex Turner-Cohen

less than 2 min read

March 16, 2020 - 4:41PM

Meat has become the latest casualty of Australia’s coronavirus panic buying, with chicken, lamb and beef becoming sought-after products much like toilet paper.

Shoppers have stripped the shelves of inner-west Sydney’s Marrickville Metro Woolworths bare of most of its meat, with empty racks showing where minced meat, chicken breasts and sausages should be.

Pictures are surfacing all over the country of meat aisles looking depleted and in some cases completely empty.

Empty supermarket shelves at Woolworths in Woolloomooloo, an inner-city eastern suburb of Sydney, on Monday. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Certain cuts of lamb were also selling out at Woolworths in Darwin. Picture Glenn Campbell

There were similar scenes at Woolworths Marrickville Metro. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

In a Facebook post Sunday afternoon, Coles announced that it would place a limit on mince, adding it to the growing list of restrictions imposed by the supermarket giant.

Customers are now only allowed two packs of mince per person.

Woolworths so far hasn’t restricted meat purchases, to news.com.au’s understanding.

It comes as Australians brace for a lockdown much like Italy, France and Spain — the hardest hit countries in Europe — in an attempt to flatten the curve.

Queues curled out of the Marrickville Metro Woolworths into the back aisle of the store as shoppers lined up around lunch time today.

It was busy at Woolworths Marrickville Metro. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Some customers took one look at the queue and declared they would come back later. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Some companies are encouraging employees to work from home such as accounting firm EY and NBN, causing more people to believe a lockdown might be imminent.

Sausages are a popular item now. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Free-range chicken has also gone. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Some parents are also making their children stay at home, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison faced backlash for not shutting down schools for two weeks to stop the viral spread.

A worker at the nearby butcher shop, Metro Master Meats, said he’d noticed a massive increase in meat purchases in the last day. His shop was looking a little bare, with none of its shelves fully stocked, and he confirmed that was the only meat he had to sell.

In the supermarkets, other items down to their last few packs included potatoes and onions.

All that was left of the onions. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

Empty supermarket shelves at Woolworths, Marrickville Metro. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

A lone potato packet sits sadly in Woolies. Picture: Alex Turner-Cohen/news.com.au

The egg aisle was also looking depleted.

Raw sugar also appears to be running out, even though shoppers can still get their daily sugar rush from the well-stocked chocolate aisles, which appeared untouched by panic buyers.