![]() Precautions taken by refineries, as well as eventual flooding, temporarily stalled the supply of petrol and diesel in the US. ![]() This type of behaviour can make shortages worse – like, for example, when Hurricane Harvey hit oil-rich Houston, Texas in 2017. However: “It is not rational to buy 500 cans of baked beans for what would likely be a two-week isolation period.” “It is rational to prepare for something bad that looks like it is likely to occur,” says David Savage, associate professor of behavioural and microeconomics at the University of Newcastle in Australia, who’s written about the rationality behind stocking up in a crisis. With events like looming natural disasters, such as a hurricane or flood, people frequently stock up with emergency supplies. So why do people do it? Experts say the answer lies in a fear of the unknown, and believing that a dramatic event warrants a dramatic response – even though, in this case, the best response is something as mundane as washing your hands. ![]() These are the real-world consequences of panic buying – a phenomenon that happens in the face of a crisis that can drive up prices and take essential goods out of the hands of people who need them most (such as face masks for health workers). (All of those places have confirmed cases of Covid-19.) And shoppers in Malaysia wanting to pad “pandemic pantries” – grocery hoards to fill people’s kitchens until the crisis dies down – have driven an 800% increase in weekly hand sanitiser sales. In Auckland, New Zealand, supermarket spending shot up 40% last Saturday compared to the same day a year ago. Mass demand for rice and instant noodles in Singapore prompted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to assure the public there was enough to go around. Moy isn’t the only one to experience long queues and empty shelves. “Toilet paper and milk were flying off the shelves faster than I could count, and carbonated water was just about empty.” But patience was definitely starting to grow thin,” says Moy, who tweeted images of long queues and people with trolleys loaded with bottled water. “For the most part, people were understanding and relatively calm. Moy, a resident of Washington state, was well aware Governor Jay Inslee had that day declared a state of emergency following the announcement of the first US death related to Covid-19. What started as a quick errand turned into a three-hour ordeal, navigating checkout lanes packed with hundreds of shoppers stocking up amid the outbreak of coronavirus. Last Saturday afternoon, Kristina Moy decided to swing by her local supermarket in the US city of Seattle to pick up some weekly groceries and supplies for her son’s upcoming baseball tournament. ![]()
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