Retailers of food, hygiene and paper products were doing a brisk business locally in Carlyle as shoppers were preparing for shortages that may develop in the coming weeks due to the Covid 19 virus.
The most coveted product here in Carlyle, as well as most everywhere else in the country, is toilet paper, followed by hand sanitizer, bleach, hand wipes and bottled water.
Food World and Southern Plains Co-op in Carlyle were sold out of toilet paper. Pharmasave and the Bargain Shop still had a good supply on hand. Alcohol based hand sanitizer was out at all locations, with people buying supplies of isopropyl and ethyl alcohol to use as a substitute.
With a huge demand across the country for these products some locations in town may be subject to short supply and back orders.
For now shoppers can find most products to satisfy their needs, some ingenuity will be needed regarding the hand sanitizer.
Chris Kelloway, manager at the Co-op assessed the situation, “There are shortages nationwide, the procurement team is doing everything it can to secure the supply for retail locations.”
He added, the store “got busy Thursday” and compared it to a “long weekend in the summer months”.
Pharmasave also was very busy and shared that sales were substantially up in comparison to Christmas. The Carlyle location had a good supply of toilet paper, but has several items on back order, namely, hand wipes, latex gloves and masks.
The Bargain shop was also seeing an upswing in business and manager Melanie Benner had a supply of most items in demand and stated, “Toilet paper is on order and the shipment is verified,” and also noting, “cleaning wipes and Lysol were selling well.”
Carlyle Food World owner, Jin Lee, reported that the store was very busy and had not experienced any supply problems at the warehouse with the sold out products, due to the added demand. He felt that the uptick in sales could be attributed to the warmer weather.”
Consumers can be relieved that you can shop locally and not have to drive to a larger centre for toilet paper at this time.
Some of the stores have and/or may put restrictions on quantities as they see fit, people are buying an extra one or two of these items and it is important not to “panic buy” causing shortages, as everyone has a need for these products.
