# Went to Costco This Morning. Was a Little Bit Scary. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 11, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294 "2020-03-11T18:58:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/41 "2020-03-12T18:44:26Z")
My mom went to Sam’s Club yesterday - no TP, no hand sanitizer, said it was a mad house at 9am. Monday I went to HyVee (grocery store), no hand sanitizer, few bottles of anti-bacterial soap were left, and the only TP was the single ply generic gas station bathroom quality stuff. They were still passing out food samples, more than usual, actually. The deli was like a dinner party. Re: disposable gloves - if you have a beauty supply store near you, give them a try. I picked up a box last weekend at Sally’s and they were well stocked. I usually have problems as I wear large or extra-large, and they can be difficult to find in a regular store, but Sally’s always has them. Bad joke - this run on TP _kinda_ makes me think back fondly to the dialysis days where a single roll would last me a few weeks. Now that I actually need the stuff, there’s a run on it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/42 "2020-03-12T22:52:31Z")
Ever since we ran out of TP in college during the last week of school and I had to bum (sorry) a roll off the girls upstairs to get my roommate out of the bathroom, I’ve always had a stash of a couple dozen rolls on hand. The local grocery stores seem to still be fairly well stocked, except for hand sanitizer. My plan for extended self-quarantining is to hit Bevmo Saturday for a couple of handles of Wild Turkey and Bacardi. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/43 "2020-03-12T23:05:35Z")
No tp at meijer near me, I suspect folks from GR made the trip up to raid the smaller cities stash. I succumbed to panic buying and got not 1 but 2 bottles of chipotle aioli then into the cart went 8 boxes of frozen Boston market dinners and they weren’t even advertised for sale. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/44 "2020-03-13T04:34:14Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Amazon had TP last I looked. I looked today, more out of curiosity than anything, and they’re sold out of all the major brands. One was listed as “will be in stock March 23rd” and changed to “Unavailable” as I looked at it. You could still get some weird bamboo toilet paper or novelty stuff but not the stuff you’d buy at the grocery store. My son works at a Target and said that his store sold $12,000 in toilet paper in the last day or two. But he also said that they’re constantly moving toilet paper and no one seems to feel like they won’t keep getting more. Hand sanitizer, on the other hand, is just gone for the time being. I was at Costco earlier in the week and didn’t notice anything exceptional. The most obnoxious crowds were the herds of human raccoons around the free sample stations, blocking me from getting through because they needed their tablespoon of free quinoa. Go buy some toilet paper and get out of my way, people! ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/45 "2020-03-13T04:40:40Z")
(double post) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/46 "2020-03-13T05:01:20Z")
I use the weird bamboo toilet paper, which is why I buy toilet paper online 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/47 "2020-03-13T06:08:19Z")
Plenty of TP at the county seat’s WalMart two days ago. More hand sanitizer at the mountain market yesterday than a few days before. I’m due to run by a CostCo next week but not for panic supplies. I hope the big Asian market nearby will be open then. Has anyone stateside noticed Asian grocers shuttered? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/48 "2020-03-13T06:45:43Z")
Went to my local SoCal Food 4 Less yesterday, no sign of panic buying. Stopped by again tonight to pick a few things I missed on my first trip and now the place was packed. Toilet paper was about half what I saw yesterday though still plenty though they are enforcing a weird “only two packages per cart” policy but is weird in that if you buy two single rolls thats the limit, but a single 24 pack isn’t the limit. Also the one thing I noticed almost everybody was buying was bleach, people had about 5-6 per cart. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/49 "2020-03-13T11:58:41Z")
One thing to remember is that those people who have a Costco branded Citibank card get their annual reward checks with their February statement. The checks have to be cashed in the store and that always increases foot traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/50 "2020-03-13T12:12:38Z")
I went to a Kroger in Bryant, Arkansas last night. Most of the produce had been sold out (plenty of apples left), they were almost entirely out of beef, chicken, and pork in the meat section, there were only a few packages of toilet paper left (I bought one), and the store was pretty crowded. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/51 "2020-03-13T13:04:05Z")
The pharmacy tech at Costco last night told me that customers were lined up from the doors the entire length of the building at 9 am yesterday. I didn’t really appreciate the magnitude of that until I remembered that Costco doesn’t open until 10. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/52 "2020-03-13T13:24:46Z")
Dunkirk, MD: swung through the Wal-Mart shortly after 6am when they open. The store was quiet, but just empty shelves where the TP and paper towels usually are, and no regular bread, just a few packages of hot dog and hamburger buns. (I didn’t check the dairy aisle.) The funny thing is, there’s a Giant supermarket in the same shopping center; if you park your car in between, it’s easy to go to both without moving your car. The Giant had plenty of TP, paper towels, and bread. The Giant is more expensive than Wal-Mart, but only moderately more so. If you’re worried that you won’t be able to get TP anytime in the next month, you’d think an extra few bucks for a jumbo pack of TP at Giant would be well worth it once Wal-Mart was out. But apparently that thought process didn’t go through the minds of many of the Wal-Martians. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/53 "2020-03-13T13:37:16Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I also don’t understand the bottled water frenzy (cheap wine is more antiseptic). Maybe it’s just a local thing, but I have these things in my house that dispense potable water whenever I turn a little knob. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/54 "2020-03-13T14:45:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Maybe it’s just a local thing, but I have these things in my house that dispense potable water whenever I turn a little knob. I know, right? I understand about hoarding some things, but this one…I mean, even if you don’t like the taste of tap water, it’ll get you through. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/55 "2020-03-13T15:32:18Z")
Out of curiosity, how long is tap water typically ok to drink once it comes out of the tap? Is it legit to just fill up some clean, reusable water bottles or a ton of ice trays if you’re concerned about the water supply? Anyway, we’ve got plenty of panic buying in St. Louis, though we just have two positive diagnoses in the state of Missouri. Panic buying is contagious. So far I’ve refused to give in, though the more places that close and the more events that are canceled, the more I look around thinking, “Oh, shit - I don’t actually own hand sanitizer, and don’t I need more bleach and wipes?” For the record, before the panic buying started I already got a bunch of hand soap (we were out) and I own a couple of gallons of bleach. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/56 "2020-03-13T15:38:15Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Times like this make me glad I installed a bidet toilet seat. 🙂 And I’m glad I saved all those old Sears catalogs. Or are those only good for outhouses? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/57 "2020-03-13T15:38:20Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > Out of curiosity, how long is tap water typically ok to drink once it comes out of the tap? The CDC says to replace non-store-bought water (which I assume includes tap water you’ve bottled) every 6 months. [https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/drinking/creating-storing-emergency-water-supply.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/drinking/creating-storing-emergency-water-supply.html) ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/58 "2020-03-13T15:58:04Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > The CDC says to replace non-store-bought water (which I assume includes tap water you’ve bottled) every 6 months. > > [https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/drinking/creating-storing-emergency-water-supply.html](https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/drinking/creating-storing-emergency-water-supply.html) Good to know, thanks! We had a water main break a few days ago, so we still had some left over (we were given advance warning about the water getting turned off). I hate to pour it down the sink, even when we’re NOT panic buying! ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/59 "2020-03-13T16:10:23Z")
Look for instructions about adding a tiny amount of bleach to water you bottle on your own. When we rotate our stored, home-bottled water, we use it to water plants in the yard. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/60 "2020-03-14T02:19:07Z")
Lining up around the block before they open near me. Fuck. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294.md?page=4)