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Not keen to see empty shelves again…

With Victoria reinstating numerous restrictions amid their latest COVID-19 outbreak, a second wave of panic buying and stockpiling has returned in full force. You’d think that this would be limited to Victoria, that only those who are realistically facing the prospect of another lockdown would be thinking to stockpile. But Sydneysiders are starting to follow their lead, swarming supermarkets to stock up on toilet paper.

“So, came back from Coles… and they’re running out of toilet paper… again… in Sydney,” one person wrote.

“And Sydney’s fetish with toilet rolls re-ignites itself,” another commented.

NSW supermarkets haven’t yet followed suit of supermarkets in Victoria, who’ve reinstated purchase limits on items such as toilet paper, hand sanitiser & other essential items, but no doubt if this continues they might start.

Woolies Managing Director Clair Peters said in a statement “We understand many Victorians are anxious about the recent community outbreak, but they can be assured our stores will remain open with plenty of stock in our warehouses to replenish our shelves.”

“While we have healthy stock levels to draw on, we’re taking this precautionary step to help prevent excessive buying and support appropriate social distancing in our Victorian stores.”

Victoria has recorded 129 new cases of COVID-19 in the past week, with local government areas such as Brimbank, Casey, Cardinia, Darwin, Hume and Moreland identified as hot spots.

Pretty scary stuff, fingers crossed for Victorians and for Sydneysiders.