Darwin shops plead with hoarders: Stop the panic buying

MAJOR Darwin supermarkets are appealing to shopping hoarders to stop the panic buying and give everyone a chance to buy food and other essentials

Major Darwin supermarkets are appealing to shopping hoarders to stop the panic buying and give everyone a chance to buy food and other essentials. Pictured are empty shelves at Karama shopping centre on Friday morning, .

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MAJOR Darwin supermarkets are appealing to shopping hoarders to stop the panic buying and give everyone a chance to buy food and other essentials.

Hoarders are being blamed for panic buying as key stocks are disappearing from shelves within hours of being replenished.

“The hoarders have gone out and bought themselves freezers and are causing the panic by stocking up and emptying the shelves,” one store manager told the NT News.

“We are getting deliveries every day and within 90 minutes of stock going on the shelves it is all gone.

“Once this settles down, and it will, they will probably be trying to bring the products back, but we won’t be taking it.”

At another store, where the elderly wandered through aisles looking at empty shelves, a staffer lamented the effect panic buying was having on seniors.

“The seniors are coming in the morning but we have no stock left from the previous day to put out,” he said.

“It is terrible what panic is being caused by people overbuying.

“This has outstripped anything we have ever seen, Christmas, cyclones, floods you name it.”

“The thing is, there is no food shortage in Australia so there is no need to panic buy.”

Shopper Stavros Michaels agreed.

“It’s more than disappointing … it’s selfish and it’s bordering anarchy,” he said.

“It’s making people do things they would never normally do. It’s un-Territorian.”

Fellow shopper Bev Partridge said she was cranky with people stockpiling goods.

“It’s not fair on people who are vulnerable, on old people, or people with young kids,” she said.

Fernando Lay, the boss at Lenard’s at Hibiscus, said he was completely sold out in four hours on Friday.

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“We’re just trying to do the best we can, but when you’ve got supermarkets that are out of stock, we get inundated,” he said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.

“We had a record week. It was a record Monday, then a record Tuesday and a record Wednesday.

“People are in a frenzy at the moment.

“We want the panic to stop, it puts a lot of pressure and strain on staff and small businesses.

“It’s difficult for us because now we’re turning away regulars who aren’t bulk buying, they’re just trying to get what they need.”

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Territory Butchers part-owner Mick Fairfield said he was selling at least 3.5 tonnes of meat in a day.

“Everyone thinks butchers are making a killing at the moment but when all this settles down, it’ll come to a big halt,” he said.

“I don’t think there’s a need for everyone to panic. All it’s doing is causing an Australia-wide shortage of meat.

“Most suppliers are only letting their customers buy 20 per cent of their usual order because there’s so much of a shortage.

“We had a queue out the door earlier. We are having triple the sales every day.

“We were talking about cutting our orders back before this.”