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As COVID-19 cases hit record highs, are shoppers stockpiling again?

Grocery store workers say they are seeing more shoppers recently.

SCRANTON, Pa. — There were a lot of bare shelves in grocery stores when COVID-19 cases were spiking in the spring.

Workers at Gerrity's along Keyser Avenue say they have seen an uptick with more shoppers recently, but that has not led to any significant shortages as of yet.

Some shoppers say said they are stocking up.

"Oh my gosh, yes! That's what I'm doing right now. As soon as I see something on sale, I'm on it," Sally Hoover of Scranton said.

"You have to have food in your house anyway, so I mean, stock up a little extra. Get deals where you could.  It's all we can hope for," added Tami Kizer of Scranton.

"We have quite a stockpile of food and basically canned goods and things of nature," Vincent Wall of Scranton said.

The state reported its highest single-day increase with 4,711 new cases across the commonwealth. 

Gerrity's co-owner Joe Fasula said the grocery store has seen a pretty steady demand during the COVID-19 spike.

"Everything that has kind of been happening for the past six to eight months continues to happen. There's a lot of supply issues, and that's probably the biggest reason when you walk into a store, and you see limits it is to prevent people from hoarding, but it's really because we just can't get enough products," Fasula said.

Workers at Gerrity's say one of the hardest items to keep on the shelves has consistently been paper products and disinfectants.

"We order as much paper products, disinfecting products, for retail sales as we can for every single order. We will order two, three, four, five cases in an order, and maybe we'll get one," Fasula said.

With the holidays around the corner, Gerrity's said some specialty items may also be hard to come by.

"We're kind of now trying to feel out the holiday items to see if we need any limits on that kind of stuff. A lot of spices, you know, people making pumpkin pies, those kinds of things," Fasula said.

Gerrity's said the buying limits really seem to be helping shoppers be able to have the opportunity to buy what they need.

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