# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/121 "2020-03-15T23:20:11Z")
Well, I split 1/4 cow with someone and got to pick it up from the processor today. 80 lbs. of beef should last us a while… ---
**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 15, 2020, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/122 "2020-03-15T23:21:50Z")
Our cereal section looked fine on Friday. Ordered some tuna from Walmart online–it has a May delivery date. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/123 "2020-03-16T04:11:00Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > If your family is stuck in your house for a couple weeks, you’ll be going through a lot more toilet paper than if everyone is going to work and school. I don’t know, I can use the same amount of TP at night and if I have to go during the day, Home Depot still has sandpaper in stock to make me not miss work TP. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/124 "2020-03-16T04:14:43Z")
I was fortunate that I got a case of toilet paper just before the big panic hit. I haven’t been to Costco recently, but I was at Sam’s Club not too long ago, and the atmosphere there was…weird. Honestly, I haven’t seen so many nervous, high-strung people in one place since Y2K. Definite shortages on things like canned pasta and bottled water, although the stuff I normally pick up was still in abundance (except for the Nutter Butters, which were nearly down to the bottom layer). Then recently I was at Lucky Strike Social Club, and man, I don’t remember when Friday night was so _sparse_ there. Some machines that always did great business were all but abandoned. I’m planning to go to Costco again next Saturday, by which time I hope to be able to report that things have cooled off. Hawaii has a well-deserved reputation for being “hang loose” about a lot of things, and prolonged state of panic is not something we either do well or particularly enjoy. Unless we get news of someone actually dying, I expect the toilet paper to return long before I actually need more. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/125 "2020-03-16T04:26:21Z")
> [@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 have them, too, but wherever I’ve lived (which included Oakville for many years) it always tasted to me like some variant of horse piss. I’m sure that a good filtering system, particularly one that gets rid of the chlorine, would work just fine, but my simple solution has always been bottled spring water. I was in a frenzy the other day because my local store was completely out, not just out of my brand, but out of all of them except the weird flavored and carbonated kind. My quest had nothing to do with coronavirus fears, it’s just that I drink a lot of the stuff and I was almost out. Fortunately found an ample supply at another store. Here in southern Ontario almost all bottled water is actual spring water, labeled with the source, and with an analysis of the mineral content. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/126 "2020-03-16T04:30:52Z")
> [@susan](#): > > Our cereal section looked fine on Friday. Ordered some tuna from Walmart online–it has a May delivery date. Walmart has now shut down the thingy where you place a grocery order at your local store and they assemble it and deliver it to your car. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/127 "2020-03-16T05:06:38Z")
I went to my local Whole Foods yesterday and a different local chain today, in part just to see what it was like. WF had pallets of TP and bottled water near the registers and people were still embarrassing themselves with mountains of TP in their cart. They had most things: bread, milk, produce, meat, the aforementioned TP. Canned goods were low and they were out of almost all canned tomato products but oddly had lots of spaghetti/marinara sauces; maybe the marinara shelf had just been restocked? The cereal aisle was 80% empty and there were almost no eggs. The store wasn’t overly busy. The other market mostly fine, too. They were out of garlic (the horror!) and hamburger but everything else looked fairly well stocked. I picked up a Wagyu steak to splurge; I’ll be saving all sorts of money by not going out to eat once they shut down the restaurants. The one thing that neither store had was regular flour. I had to use whole wheat pastry flour for my Saturday morning pancakes. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/128 "2020-03-16T11:56:30Z")
I went to my local supermarket yesterday morning when they opened. I figured how many people would be there first thing on a Sunday? The place was packed. Everything was fully-stocked except for hand sanitizer and bread. They had a huge pallet of bleach. The pharmacy didn’t have its usual spray bottle of Purell at the register. Probably someone swiped it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/129 "2020-03-16T13:11:47Z")
My cousin is at the grocery store right now (8 AM on a Monday) hoping it wouldn’t be packed early on a weekday. According to texts, no such luck. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/130 "2020-03-17T00:50:32Z")
Ventured into Costco today. There were out of: [ul] [li]Paper products[/li][li]Ground beef[/li][li]Chicken (except drumsticks)[/li][li]Eggs[/li][li]Milk[/li][li]Bread[/li][li]Cleaning supplies[/li][li]Bottled water[/li][/ul] Replenished my stock of cheese, lunch meat, bacon, Diet Pepsi, and salsa. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/131 "2020-03-17T01:42:08Z")
Folks who are convinced there is no milk or rice or dried beans or lentils or yogurt in your city? Maybe not at Costco, but give your local small ethnic grocers some love. I just went to the little Indo-Pak grocer a couple of blocks from my house after taking one look at the Costco parking lot. It may not be one-stop shopping, and it’s primarily dry goods, but they have just about every bean, lentil, and grain you’ve ever heard of, and some that you probably haven’t. And competitive prices. I also got a giant tub of plain yogurt and a gallon of milk. They have fresh-cut meat if I had needed any. Best of all: the store was nearly empty and I was in and out in five minutes. Now I just have to figure out what the best equivalent is for produce, because we just used up the last onion… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/132 "2020-03-17T01:46:17Z")
There weren’t any onions in that grocery store? Onions are the basis of a lot of Indian food. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/133 "2020-03-17T01:53:00Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > There weren’t any onions in that grocery store? Onions are the basis of a lot of Indian food. Well…perhaps that’s why they’re out. At my grocery, there was no shortage of onions, potatoes, peppers, any of that stuff at 2 p.m. Produce section was fine. Dried goods were a little patchy – big run on beans. I found the last big bag of black beans. Pretty much every other legume was gone except for black eyed peas and lentils. Canned beans were around, though. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/134 "2020-03-17T03:10:51Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > There weren’t any onions in that grocery store? Onions are the basis of a lot of Indian food. Nope, like I said, that particular grocery is almost all dry goods (and some frozen and a few refrigerated things, and they do have halal meat). I don’t think they normally even carry fresh veggies at all. I just went there because it was the closest place to my house where I thought I could find milk and yogurt, and I was right. I don’t normally do any significant shopping there, though - just run over there if I am out of something between regular grocery runs. But from reports I am seeing from friends, many of the regular general grocery stores are pretty picked over, so I decided to see whether specializing would actually get me what I needed, and this time it did. No plain all-purpose flour, though - when I asked, I got a small amused lecture from the proprietor about how he hadn’t been able to restock it because all the Europeans are buying it up, but Indians and Pakistanis prefer whole-grain flour anyway. 🙂 So I bought a bag of multigrain chapati flour and will make some bread myself. That’s another thing - people complaining about bread shortages in stores. Bread-making isn’t rocket science, folks - if you’re stuck home anyway, just make some! ---
**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 17, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/135 "2020-03-17T04:24:17Z")
I stopped off at a grocery store this morning, around 7:45am. Not many people there and most things were more or less in stock. Aside from the empty paper goods aisle, the next barest places were the frozen pizzas and the bread – but both had a decent supply of each. Maybe you wouldn’t get the exact brand & style of bread you wanted but you’d get something close. Curiously, there was a full supply of other frozen meals but I guess everyone decided that they need pizza instead of frozen lasagna or Hungry Man chicken dinners. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/136 "2020-03-17T16:42:08Z")
Went to a different grocery store looking for stuff that we couldn’t get at our regular one last Friday. Looked fairly close to normal except for the paper goods aisle. Got a few regular items. The bread aisle looked fairly okay stocked. I passed since I have a loaf in the freezer and they didn’t have my bread. **Mrs. FtG** thinks that was a bad idea. If this is any indication, the main panic buying is over (except for TP). Well, the checkout clerk seemed to have grabbed 3 cans of wipes for her own use and was marking them, putting them under the counter. So that’s still happening. ---
**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 17, 2020, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/137 "2020-03-17T16:43:50Z")
We’re going to Publix after work tonight to top off and resupply some things (we actually stockpiled a 2-week supply a week and a half ago, so some of it is running low at this point). ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/138 "2020-03-17T20:34:18Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > If this is any indication, the main panic buying is over (except for TP). Well, the checkout clerk seemed to have grabbed 3 cans of wipes for her own use and was marking them, putting them under the counter. So that’s still happening. Seriously? Hey, if you don’t want us to wipe down the register area, especially places like touchscreens, go ahead and claim the clerk “grabbed 3 cans of wipes for her own use” and keep complaining. Did she take them home? Or was she using them at work? Or her coworkers using them? The store where I work all register lanes and few other places all have cleaning/sanitizing supplies. To keep our workplace clean AND clean up after customers who cough or sneeze all over the payment areas. You’re welcome. Or would rather have those areas NOT cleaned? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/139 "2020-03-17T20:51:18Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Seriously? > > Hey, if you don’t want us to wipe down the register area, especially places like touchscreens, go ahead and claim the clerk “grabbed 3 cans of wipes for her own use” and keep complaining. Did she take them home? Or was she using them at work? Or her coworkers using them? > > The store where I work all register lanes and few other places all have cleaning/sanitizing supplies. To keep our workplace clean AND clean up after customers who cough or sneeze all over the payment areas. You’re welcome. > > Or would rather have those areas NOT cleaned? A little touchy, are we? All you had to do was clarify. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294/140 "2020-03-17T21:09:33Z")
Last night, I should have had a smartphone with a camera. I had a craving for one of my favorite junk food products: vegetarian corn dogs, so I braved the local supermarket at 9:00 p.m. The frozen food aisles looked war looted, nothing except bare, black shelves until I got to the vegetarian section is was completely stocked with all sorts of meatless frozen food. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/went-to-costco-this-morning-was-a-little-bit-scary/849294.md?page=8)