By Danielle Kutchel
Just when you thought it was safe to go to the shops, it seems toilet paper hoarders are striking again.
There are reports of chaotic scenes at local shopping centres as customers scramble to pick up packs of toilet roll.
According to one resident, staff at Coles Casey Central were warning customers not to take more than two packs at a time, even though there were no signs advising of the limit.
Down the road at Coles Berwick Central, staff have put up signs limiting customers to one pack per transaction, to beat the run on bog roll.
After visiting various major shopping centres in Berwick, Narre Warren and Beaconsfield, Star News Group witnessed customers leaving with multiple bulk packs of everyone’s favourite essential.
However, most of the shops visited had rolled out fresh pallets of the wanted white squares and placed them in strategic positions at the end of aisles.
The apparent panic buying follows the State Government’s designation of Casey and Cardinia as Covid-19 hotspots, thanks to recent outbreaks.
Shoppers Sheryl White and Graham Bottomley were appalled to see gaps appearing on the toilet paper shelves again.
“We saw it on the news this morning and thought ‘oh not again!'” Sheryl exclaimed.
“Why does this happen? I don’t understand. It’s sheer stupidity. There are no words to describe it.”
Graham said initial panic buying was likely to force others to stock up in fear of running short.
“We were here yesterday and everything was full. But not this morning.”
Woolworth has since moved to reinstate product limits for shoppers.
On Wednesday 24 June, Woolworths announced it would be limiting customers to two items of toilet paper, hand sanitiser, paper towel, flour, sugar, pasta, mince, UHT milk, eggs and rice across its Victorian stores.
The supermarket giant labelled the move “preventative” and said in a statement that it was “in response to significantly elevated demand seen over the past 24 hours in certain parts of Melbourne.”
“We understand many Victorians are anxious about the recent community outbreak, but they can be assured our stores will remain open with plenty of stock in our warehouses to replenish our shelves,” said Woolworths Supermarkets managing director Claire Peters.
“While we have healthy stock levels to draw on, we’re taking this precautionary step to help prevent excessive buying and support appropriate social distancing in our Victorian stores.
“We have more than enough product for all of our customers if we all just buy what we need in our weekly shop.
“We’ll closely monitor demand across Victoria in the coming days and look to wind back the limits as soon as we can.”
The re-introduction of limits will also apply to online orders.
An Aldi Australia spokesperson said there was plenty of toilet paper to go around for all its shoppers.
“One thing Victorian shoppers do not need to be worried about is access to toilet paper at ALDI,” the spokesperson said.
“We ask shoppers to resist any compulsion to purchase more than they normally would.”
Aldi is monitoring the situation but is not introducing restrictions on products.
Coles has been contacted for comment.
