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Costco Customers Overwhelm Stores In Some Cities, Strip Shelves Bare Of Tissues, Sanitizer, Other Goods

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 05:58 PST, Mar 2, 2020

Shoppers at Costco stores across the country overwhelmed the warehouse business, stripped its shelves bare of tissues and other supplies, and even fought with each other over goods, as some panicked Americans tried to prepare for the spread of coronavirus. Even as customers were swinging fists at each other over bags of rice, Americans were, and still are, getting mixed signals about what should be done to prepare for the deadly virus.

As Business Insider reports, over the weekend, shoppers converged on the retailer’s locations in some cities, ridding the buildings of some in-demand supplies and causing long lines.

For example, in Tigard, Oregon, which is not far from Lake Oswego, where the first known death from coronavirus occurred in the U.S., shoppers had cleaned the store completely out of tissues, paper towels, and toilet paper in a matter of hours. Signs posted around the building warned shoppers that supplies had run out for the day and to come back later to check again.

In Honolulu, state officials from the Hawaii Department of Health told residents to stock up on food and other necessities, possibly with a view of having enough to last for 14 days. Not long afterward, parts of Costco were empty. One shopper reported having to wait in a line with 200 people.

In Colorado Springs, shoppers bought all of the toilet paper in the building.

In one location, customers were seen fighting each other over bags of rice.

In the San Diego suburb of Carmel Mountain Ranch, shoppers rid the store of bread, rice, toilet paper, and other key supplies.

Meanwhile, Americans are getting mixed signals about how to prepare, if at all, for coronavirus. For example, even as Hawaii authorities were telling residents to stock up on goods, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Robert Redfield told Congress that, for now anyway, there’s no need to start stockpiling goods.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, insists that the threat to Americans from coronavirus is “very low.” As Fox News reported on Monday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said that it was President Trump’s “unprecedented” steps that have kept the virus from getting worse here.

One thing Americans should not be stocking up on, according to health officials, is face masks. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Surgeon General Jerome Adams has warned that face masks are useless against preventing the spread of coronavirus and that the supply of those masks should be kept for medical workers.

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