MARCH MADNESS
Hundreds of shoppers, some wearing protective face masks, jam shopping carts with supplies at the Costco location on Walker Road on Friday as the potential threat of COVID-19 led to large crowds and empty shelves at many local stores.
“The world’s gone mad — it’s unbelievable!”
An astonishing Facebook Live video posted by Windsor’s Leo Lucier during a shopping trip to the Real Canadian Superstore Thursday night provides a fascinating glimpse at the kind of panic shopping triggered by the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Waiting for his turn to cash out among the dozens of shoppers with stacked-high grocery carts clustered around the checkout registers, Lucier decided to explore the extent of the lineup behind them. His smartphone video captures a winding single-file snake of loaded shopping carts stretching down the front of the store, then along the frozen food aisle to the rear and then back again to the fresh produce section — dozens and dozens of carts of customers who had completed their shopping and were now waiting to pay and get out.
“We’re living in crazy times,” Lucier told the Star.
What really surprised him, he said, was how calm, polite, patient and friendly everyone was.
Quicker than the spread of a global pandemic, Lucier’s Windsor video went viral on the internet. Within 24 hours of its appearance on Facebook it had received 1.7 million views.
“When you see stuff like all of Italy shut down, or when the prime minister goes into quarantine, it raises concerns,” said Lucier.
Not a panic shopper himself, he said he was there to fetch groceries for other family members who were getting worried over the news of the spreading virus. Noticeable on his food trip, he said, was how every arriving shopper was taking advantage of hand sanitizer offered by the store, which was also being used to wipe down the grocery cart handles.
Scenes of unusually long grocery store lineups have been common across Windsor and elsewhere, but nothing like in Montreal, where police were called out Friday to provide watch over some busier stores.
Do Canadians need to rush out to buy up foods, toilet paper and bottled water before the retail shelves are emptied?
“Not at all — I don’t think fear and worry are warranted at this point,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a Canadian professor and expert on food distribution, security and safety.
“This is a virus, not a hurricane or an earthquake,” said Charlebois. Unlike other natural calamities that strike suddenly, he said the growth and spread of the coronavirus has given the food sector sufficient time to keep pace and accommodate the bit of panic buying being seen now.
“We estimated 10 or 11 per cent of the population would panic-buy, and they’re doing that right now — but it’ll soon pass,” said Charlebois, senior director of the Agrifood Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax and known as the Food Professor.
“The food industry has learned a lot, including from the auto sector, about modern supply chains — they’ve invested heavily,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any concerns about food ... and prices.”
So relax, shoppers, Canada’s supply of food and toilet paper appears secure — no need to storm local grocery stores and clear out shelves.
But there is a chance of danger, Charlebois warns.
If the border between Canada and United States were to suddenly close, the way the Trump administration has temporarily halted travel from continental Europe, “that could be a nightmarish scenario,” he said.
At this time of year, about 80 per cent of all fresh produce on Canadian store shelves either originates in the U.S. or transits through the U.S., said Charlebois.
“What the (U.S.) president did on Tuesday against Europe was, frankly, shocking. I’m just hoping cooler heads prevail.”