Shoppers panic buy toilet roll
TOILET roll strangely became one of the most sought after items as panic buying took hold in Dundalk due to fears over the coronavirus crisis.
In one Lidl store one evening last week, a staff member revealed that the premises received a double delivery, amounting to 600 packs that morning, and all of it was snapped up.
‘ They’re either hoarding it or they’re building forts with it’, he joked with customers at the check-out, adding: ‘Anyway, isn’t the coronavirus a respiratory illness. How are toilet rolls going to help’.
Still, the humble toilet roll was the first product to disappear off the shelves of Dundalk supermarkets each morning, with reports of people wheeling full trolley loads to their cars.
Other high-demand items included pasta, rice, bread and canned foods with some electrical shops also reporting a surge in the demand for freezers as people increased their purchases of available stocks of frozen food.
Pharmacies were doing a roaring trade in the sale of anything with the word ‘anti-bacterial’ on the label along with vitamins, throat lozenges and immune-system-boosting supplements.
Throughout the county, retail staff have been run off their feet, coping with the massive increase in consumer demand, and in Louth its been no different. Online shopping and demand for home deliveries have also increased, especially among customers who have health conditions and may not want to leave their homes.