The public response to the Wegmans announcement that it was curtailing hours?
Another stampede.
This is more than panic buying.
It’s an insatiable need to do something, to connect with a trusted provider at a time when other sources of support are shutting down or failing. (School closings and event cancellations are justifiable; the lack of virus testing is not. But that’s a different story.)
Yesterday, a customer tweeted this to Wegmans: “You will soon be all we have.”
The company, its employees and its network of suppliers are doing their best. The shortages are not the result of supply failures, but of demand hysteria. Shelves, not all of them, but many, will be filled.
Warehouses are directing shipments. Trucks are pulling into the bays of Wegmans stores. Grocery crews are unloading the trucks, breaking down pallets, restocking shelves. In the morning, cashiers will be ringing up purchases.
Operations that have long provided for customers will continue, although with more limited hours and, possibly, with changes in delivery systems.
People need to find reassurance in that and tamp down the counter-productive temptation to hoard.
Calm yourselves.