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ELECTRICAL goods shops across the country are selling out of freezers as people stocked up on food as panic buying swept the country yesterday.
In many stores, some people bought fridge freezers at a cost of hundreds of euro because the freezers were already sold out.
‘It’s quite incredible, none of us have seen anything like it,’ said a sales manager at Jack Fitzgeralds electronics in Limerick, which ran out of freezers yesterday.
Other shops reported a run on home office supplies as people prepare to work from home.
The Government has appealed for calm but tens of thousands of people lined up at supermarkets to stockpile food yesterday.
Harvey Norman stores across Dublin reported that they sold out of freezers.
‘It’s been a dramatic spike in sales and we’re getting phone calls and queries all day. You’re also getting people buying up monitors, chairs and desks to make a home office,’ said a sales manager at Harvey Norman in Rathfarnham.
A manager at DID Electronics, Terryland, Galway, said there has been a ‘massive upsurge in sales’ and they have run out of freezers.
‘It started on Monday and Tuesday and people are now buying fridge freezers. We’ve had a lot of phone queries and people are taking what they can get,’ he said.
The Harvey Norman in Carrickmines, Dublin, said people were now buying up 50/50 fridge freezers, the fridges with the largest freezer capacity.
‘We’re out of stock on freezers but suppliers are not out of stock in Europe so we should be getting more. I’m hearing from staff that there is a spike in sales of headphones, ink, monitors and office supplies as people move to working at home,’ a manager said.
Some of the biggest supermarkets in the country were forced to shut down as hundreds of people tried to get in, while others struggled to cope with the huge queues of people buying up bread, toilet paper and frozen goods.
Business Minister Heather Humphreys said stockpiling will cause further problems and she urged the public to remain calm.
In an attempt to allay the public’s fears, she said retailers and supermarkets have assured her there is a sufficient supply chain.
The Taoiseach’s announcement that colleges, schools and other public facilities will close for two weeks from 6pm last night-prompted huge queues at supermarkets across the country.
Tesco in Clare Hall, Dublin, shut down for hours because of the large crowds trying to get in, sending shoppers looking for supplies in other supermarkets. Tesco in Liffey Valley temporarily shut down to try to dissuade the large crowds gathered outside.
Dozens lined up in the forecourt of the Dundrum Town Centre as they waited to get into the Tesco store, where queues lined up around the shop. In Waterford, Lidl sold out of bread and frozen goods by the afternoon. Tesco on Dublin’s Baggot Street sold out of toilet paper and had lines of people up to the back of the shop, while Dunnes in St Stephen’s Green ran out of bread before 4pm.
‘It’s like a wave of panic. We are just afraid that the markets won’t have the supplies for the next couple of days. We have to keep supplies at home in case they run out,’ said Abdullah El Basioni, a network engineer originally from Alexandria, Egypt, who was about to leave Tesco Baggot Street because of the large crowds at 3pm. He and his work colleague, Mohammed Ibrahim, from Cairo, were concerned that too many people were panic buying.
Bank of Ireland employees Srini Jake and Mounika Kay lined up at Tesco Ballsbridge after Mounika failed to get in at Clare Hall.
‘I was able to take the Dart here, but the crowds are getting bigger and bigger so it’s better to buy now before the after-work crowd comes,’ she said. Law student Niamh Carroll and her sister Ciara were buying up pizza, Rice Krispies and Crunchie bars.
‘It’s completely crazy in there,’ said Niamh as they were leaving.
Ciara, a medical student, said some of her doctor friends are examiners for final year medical exams at Trinity College, where the exams have been moved forward to get more doctors graduating as soon as possible.
‘It’s all hands on deck at the moment and it’s only going to get worse,’ she said.
‘A spike in the sale of office supplies’