MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The spread of the coronavirus has most grocery stores packed as the run on cleaning supplies and other essential goods continues.
For example, the Kroger on Union Avenue was very busy Friday as shoppers tried to stock up, but many came up short.
Essentials like bread were scarce. The meat section was mostly empty, and the aisle for cleaning supplies looked like a ghost town.
“No hand sanitizers and stuff like that,” shopper Barry Boone said. “There were none on the shelf — none that I saw.”
Out in the parking lot, drivers were desperate to find parking spots, with some people even parking on the side of the building. That includes Bryan Shannon, who needed help getting his shopping cart to the car when the wheels jammed.
“I usually don’t have to park right here,” he said. “Usually, the furthest I have to go is to the back of the lot.”
Around the corner at a Family Dollar on Poplar Avenue, it was hit-and-miss for shoppers like Wendell Brown.
“(I got) paper towels, tissue paper, Clorox, paper plates, just the necessities,” Brown said. “I couldn’t find any hand sanitizer, couldn’t find any Lysol. So I got to keep rolling so I can find it. I hate to say follow the crowd, but that’s what it looks like everyone is doing, following the crowd, but it’s better safe than sorry.”
Terri Stewart felt plenty safe when she found all the toilet paper and paper towels she needed at a South Memphis Family Dollar on E.H. Crump Boulevard.
“I went to the store the other day, and there was nothing at Sam’s, so I came over here, and they had it, and I got it,” Stewart said.
She got some for her friend, too.
“She has kids, so I got some for her also,” Stewart said.
Many stores are putting limits on how many cleaning supplies customers can buy at a time — that’s how intense the run on goods has become.
