OVER-THE-RHINE, Ohio (WKRC) – Grocery stores are urging customers to only buy what they need for a week as items continue to fly off the shelves.
“Truly, the food supply is not drying up. The supply of everything you need is great,” said Kroger corporate affairs manager Erin Rolfes. “We’ve got plenty of food coming in. We’ve got plenty of those essentials we need. We just need folks to think about others when they’re shopping.”
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, people have been buying dozens of the same item. Most notably, shoppers have had a hard time getting toilet paper.
“It’s selfish,” said Ted Berry, who stopped by Kroger before work to buy necessities. “And I think it’s a personification of how fearful people [are] and how afraid they are that they would hoard to the exclusion of other people that need the same things they do.”
When Berry tried to buy groceries over the weekend, like many people, he was unsuccessful.
“The cupboards were empty,” he said. “I mean, there was no fruit, there was no water, there was no toilet paper.”
Kroger now has reduced hours to give employees more time to restock shelves and will be temporarily closing service departments, such as the deli and meat counter. But officials have made it clear that grocery stores will not close.
“In other states where we’ve seen shelter-in-place, we’ve seen the grocery stores remain open,” Rolfes said. “In Italy when they’re under quarantine, the grocery stores stay open.”
Kroger’s reduced hours are from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.