NORFOLK, Va. — According to store owners, specific items like disinfectants and paper products have flown off the shelf in the past few days due to fears over the COVID-19 pandemic.
MacArthur Pharmacy owner Chris Lawrence said people are taking stocking up seriously.
“This is very similar to a natural disaster. It’s coming and while a hurricane can veer off, people think the virus is going to come everywhere,”’ said Lawrence.
He added the items people have purchased are very specific.
"The main things are hand wipes, sanitizers, and Clorox," Lawrence said. "Who wants to be caught without toilet paper? Paper towels too, we’re selling a lot of paper towels.”
Because shelves have cleared out so quickly by people stocking up, he and his staff are working hard to restock.
“People are worried and instead of buying two, they’re buying 10 individual products at once. We have to check with the wholesaler every day to see if it’s been refilled.”
Shopper Scott Goodspeed stopped by the pharmacy to get hand sanitizer and was surprised to see there was none left.
“I want to make it available to my employees just to keep everyone safer. Why hasn’t anybody been washing their hands until now?” Goodspeed asked.
Goodspeed said he’s won’t let fear take over his shopping list.
“As far as I know there’s no symptoms in this that would require an exorbitant amount of toilet paper, but my usual supplies I’ll just be getting and making sure I have plenty of.”
Another customer, Jessica Peoples, said she believed people were panicking and stocking up for the worst-case scenario.
“I go to the stores and there’s like nothing there, everything is off of the shelf. Buying all the toilet paper off of the shelves will not help you with the coronavirus. When they say you will be quarantined for 14 days, people get worried that they’re going to run out of these products,” said Peoples.