COLORADO, USA — Grocery store chains across Colorado are trying to stop shoppers from “panic buying.”
Among them is King Soopers.
On Sunday, King Soopers told 9NEWS there is no reason for people to be alarmed because they have an entire warehouse – that spans nearly 20 acres – filled with supplies to restock the chain’s 153 stores.
King Soopers’ corporate affairs manager Jessica Trowbridge said people are buying things faster than they can keep the shelves full.
“The reason the stores are empty is we’ve just seen increased amount of customer traffic in our stores grabbing those items up just as quickly as we’re putting them into the store,” Trowbridge said.
She said King Soopers restocks daily and they're far from running out of groceries. Trowbridge said they’re hoping to spread a message that shoppers can rest assured they have enough items consumers are looking for as long as all shoppers only take what’s necessary for their households.
In an effort to keep products on shelves longer, King Soopers already made adjustments including its supplies team maximizing the number of hours they work, setting a purchase limit of five sanitation products as well as five cold and flu items and changing store hours to 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“In our warehouse, we have plenty of toilet paper. We have plenty of paper towels, all those items that people are really looking for right now,” Trowbridge said.
So, if King Soopers has enough supplies for everyone, then why are those items not on shelves for more people to buy?
“It’s a matter of the amount of product we can get to the store in a truckload and trying to get those truckloads out and to the stores,” Trowbridge said.
King Soopers said they’ve increased the amount of drivers as well as trucks going to stores.
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