The same fear concerning the coronavirus that has gripped world markets has hit our local supermarket today. As soon as I arrived at the supermarket, I was struck by the length of the queue. I thought that was some kind of special or event there, then I realised, yep coronavirus fears. People are buying up huge amounts of packaged foods in case there is a sudden food/supplies shortage.
In Australia where there is still minimal amounts of patients diagnosed with coronavirus, this kind of overwhelming fear is quite interesting to witness. From my estimations, around 2/3 of the shoppers were of Chinese background. But what's with the sudden desire to hoard food?
I think it's all to do with the growing coverage from the media and the sense of urgency and scare disseminated by news sources that is getting people to panic. And so in a supermarket where the queues are usually around 5 minutes wait, we waited for around 40 minutes in the queue today.
What do you think? Are you preparing for a food/supplies shortage just in case?