Shoppers empty supermarket shelves as coronavirus fears bite

Australians have stripped supermarket shelves of essentials after Scott Morrison moved the country into pandemic mode.

Empty shelves in a supermarket at Chatswood on Sydney’s north shore on Saturday.

Frightened Australians have flocked to supermarkets and stripped shelves of essentials following Scott Morrison’s declaration that the government anticipated coronavirus to become a pandemic.

Over the weekend, images emerged online of toilet paper shelves completely empty, Panadol cases cleaned out and huge, yawning gaps in aisles where non-perishable food items otherwise may have sat.

At Woolworths Metro Chatswood in North Sydney on Sunday shelves in the toilet paper aisle lay almost bare.

Toilet paper shelves completely empty on Sydney’s north shore. Picture: Supplied

Shoppers stood in front of empty shelves, gawking at the lack of choice. When a pallet of toilet paper was rolled out with toilet paper still wrapped in plastic shipping wrap, customers pounced. Checkout staff had to wrestle ungainly loads of four or five 12-packs of toilet paper bound together over the register.

Aldi shopping shelves are emptying.. meat, veggies, pasta and freezer sections getting emptied #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/tHilpIHoG8

— Matt🇦🇺 (@Matt19429406) March 1, 2020

The situation was much the same at the neighbouring Coles, with shoppers running in to grab some last-minute dinner items left having to battle over a few remaining bags of rice. Toilet paper, tissue, Panadol and disinfectant wipe stocks were also nearly depleted.

Staff remarked that people had been stocking up on these essential items primarily in the morning.

By the late evening it seemed the coronavirus-inspired panic shopping beget panic shopping of a different kind. At the checkout, Chatswood local Ana stood waiting with a trolley filled with the last of the 1kg bags of Jasmine rice. “I’m not afraid of the virus,” she laughed. “I heard that lots of people were buying rice — I buy a lot of rice too. To be honest, I panicked a little bit about not having rice, which is why I’m doing this. Normally I buy the big bags but they are all gone.”

A spokesman for Woolworths said the shortage of goods was partial and only temporary.

“We saw a sharp increase in demand for long-life pantry items and household staples at the end of the week, which led to partial stock shortages across some of our stores,” he said. “We have good stock levels to draw on in our distribution centres and will continue working closely with our suppliers to maintain supply.”

A spokeswoman for Coles said any shortages in their stores were also temporary, some hygiene products excepted.

“We are currently experiencing a shortage of some antibacterial handwashes and hand sanitiser products due to high customer demand,” she said.

David Savage, an associate professor of behavioural economics at the Newcastle Business School, said Australians had a tendency to react too casually to disasters and needed to prepare more responsibly. “Australians generally don’t have the disaster plans, they don’t have good survival plans,” Mr Savage told ABC News.

“We take it a bit too casually. Some people leave it a bit late, and that is the biggest problem, especially for the supply chain. If everybody decides to run to the supermarket at the last minute and start scraping things off the shelves, yeah, that is going to be a problem.”

But with the outbreak well contained in Australia, food manufacturers and suppliers are urging calm and health authorities say stockpiling is not necessary.