A man in Australia tried to return some excess supplies he picked up prior to the coronavirus pandemic, though his attempt was not a welcome one. The incident took place at Drakes Supermarkets in South Australia, and it inspired manager John-Paul Drake to post a video to YouTube on April 7 explaining exactly how it all went down.
“I had my first customer yesterday who said he wanted to get a refund on 150 packets of 32-pack toilet paper and 150 units of one-liter sanitizer,” Drake said in the clip, via The Daily Wire. “I told him [extended middle finger] that. That is the sort of person that is causing the problem in the whole country.” Along with some historical recaps on panic-buying throughout history, he also decried the act of panic-buying in general and defended supermarkets’ decision to put limits on certain items.
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“If everyone had just bought the things that they’d needed for their immediate short-term, we would be fine,” Drake explained. “But the reality is, we’ve had so many people hoarding products and buying products that they’re never gonna use.”
On Tuesday, two brothers in Tennessee who had hoarded more than 17,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, along with other medical supplies, avoided a fine after reaching a deal with the state’s Attorney General, Herbert H. Slatery III. Matthew and Noah Colvin had gone on a 1,300 road trip throughout Tennessee and Kentucky buying up supplies, which they tried to sell online at a drastic markup.
The two brothers avoided a penalty after agreeing to surrender their supplies to healthcare providers across the two states. “Disrupting necessary supplies during an unprecedented pandemic is a serious offense,” Slatery said in a statement. “It became clear during our investigation that the Colvins realized this, and their prompt cooperation and donation led to an outcome that actually benefited some consumers.”
Panic buying led to supply shortages around the world, which started quite memorably with toilet paper. As people rushed to stock up on supplies when Stay-at-Home orders were just starting to be implemented, shoppers shared photos of empty store shelves. While stores like Walmart were experiencing record sales as a result, it left many shoppers empty-handed.
It also led to huge spikes in pricing for items like eggs, which prompted some grocers to opt-out of re-ordering supplies until the demand had stabilized. Walmart also theorized that hair dye would be the next in-demand item for those on lockdown, although it seems that this hasn’t quite been the case.
