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Why some AZ grocery stores are limiting purchases
PHOENIX - Some Valley grocery stores have limited purchases like toilet paper and paper towels to avoid panic buying during the California wildfires.
Valley grocery stores in several cities are limiting mostly household items, like laundry detergent, toilet paper and paper towels. Eggs are also flying off the shelves.
It’s noticeable, leaving some shelves completely empty.
Some shoppers were told stores missed shipments this past week due to the wildfires.
Dr. Gene Schneller, ASU Professor from the Department of Supply Chain Management within the W. P. Carey School of Business, says the Valley impacts should not be widespread due to a lack of supplies, but rather, items may be reallocated based on needs in California.
Some shoppers say they’ve changed the way they shop since the COVID-19 pandemic for this very reason.
California fires latest: 24 dead, 16 missing; strong winds returning
Wildfires burned for a sixth day Sunday in Los Angeles County as stronger Santa Ana winds returned. At least 24 people have died and 16 others are missing.
"I don’t want something to happen where we don’t have any food."
"It’s always the milk, the eggs, the toilet paper that go first. Very unnecessarily."
"They are limiting it all to 2 or 3 items per person and I thought, ‘Oh gosh, here we go again.'"
"It is a little worrisome. That was a really stressful time for everyone to go through. To see that happen again worries me. But we have to keep on keeping on."
"I don’t buy a lot, but I buy enough to have at least a month's worth, in case of an emergency."
FOX 10 reached out to major Valley grocery store corporations about what those allocations could look like in the coming weeks.
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Some Arizona grocery stores are limiting purchases
ASU Professor says there's a lesson to be learned
Dr. Schneller was in Los Angeles when the fires broke out, witnessing the devastation firsthand.
"If you can think of 10,000 homes that are suddenly gone and those folks have to go shopping in different places, or they need to go to different food stores. I think a lot of the suppliers are going to have to rethink where they send the materials, the food and other kinds of things that they used to have," Dr. Schneller explained.
This is something Dr. Schneller says we can all learn from.
"I think maybe the lesson for all of us is, to be prepared that this can happen, whether it's this kind of a natural disaster or something else, and we need to prepare for it," he said.
The professor does not expect long-term impacts.