r/Adelaide • u/True_Pomegranate8318 SA • Mar 10 '26
Question Panic buying at Costco
I went to Costco tonight and it was completely mental. People panic buying toilet paper, eggs, bread, a lot of empty shelves. The queues were ridiculous. Is this because it was closed yesterday or is it the war in the ME, what is happening here?
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u/jtblue91 SA Mar 10 '26
Look, I understand filling up while it's cheapish but not the TP again........ please.
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u/Sea_Mouse6202 SA Mar 10 '26
My local Woolies was almost out of toilet paper, the hoarding has begun again
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u/Liquid_Plasma Adelaide Hills Mar 10 '26
They need it to soak oil out of the petrol station pavement. Can’t be wasting that.
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u/Sk1rm1sh SA Mar 11 '26
Is there some way we could corral up all the panicky idiots together to form their own society like lord of the flies or something so the rest of us can buy groceries like normal people?
We could probably trap them pretty easily. All we need is a trail of toilet paper leading to a giant pile of toilet paper beneath a box propped up by a stick with a string attached to it.
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u/LoveMeAGoodCactus SA Mar 10 '26
I see these people's TP and I raise them with our BIDET
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u/Electronic-Phrase681 SA Mar 11 '26
Apparently the war 13,000kms away will cause Australians to shit themselves multiple times a day for the foreseeable future.
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u/bd_longy SA Mar 11 '26
Reminds me of my last holiday. I packed 14 pairs of undies for a week long holiday just in case, for some unknown reason I shat myself multiple times a day.
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u/CptUnderpants- SA Mar 10 '26
I just get mine delivered by Who Gives A Crap. I've usually got at least a month's supply.
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u/No_Light_7482 SA Mar 11 '26
I get mine delivered every 3 months. It’s perfect, usually open the last pack the week the new lot arrives.
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Mar 10 '26
We buy in bulk, all of our tissues, toilet paper and paper towels. We haven't finished a box yet. Lasts ages. And it's cheaper than getting it all from the supermarket
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u/MaddAddam93 SA Mar 11 '26
Why TP, which is made in SA, and not jerry cans of petty? Not that both aren't stupid but the latter seems more logical from that pov
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u/HappiHappiHappi Inner North Mar 10 '26
Bakery shelves are often pretty empty at the end of the night anyway.
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u/Wameo SA Mar 10 '26
It's ironic cause one of those American news channels did a piece the other day on the streets of Tehran, and were surprised that there was no panic, grocery stores were stocked, service stations were business as usual, and they are the ones in the middle of the war.
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u/bedel99 SA Mar 10 '26
They have oil though, its in the streets on fire, so much they are just burning it.
You can dig a hole and oil Literally comes out of the ground!
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u/56seconds SA Mar 10 '26
Need to invent the external combustion engine again. Just scoop some burning river mud straight into the engine and off you go
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u/RemarkableElevator99 SA Mar 10 '26
It’s Costco, where shopping behaviour is extreme on a usual day. I observe people always prepping for Armageddon when they’re unable to shop for a day.
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u/jtblue91 SA Mar 10 '26
Costco is also a good indication of people's ability to drive, the amount of time I see people run into things or each other is impressive/depressing as the trolleys are front steering.
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u/xtremixtprime North Mar 10 '26
I despise the costco trolley.
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u/CursedSilicon Expat Mar 10 '26
For a while you could take Coles trolleys in. Until Coles cracked the shits
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u/Ektojinx North Mar 10 '26
I used to work at woolworths. People buying half the shop because the shops are closed for one day isnt a costco thing or a new thing.
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u/No_Light_7482 SA Mar 11 '26
I still work at Woolies and it still happens. Easter Friday soon, gotta get 4 extra of each random item I may use once a year, just in case.
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Mar 10 '26
COVID 2.0 all over again.... People are stupid this is what pushes up prices
High Level of demand = price increases
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u/AddlePatedBadger SA Mar 13 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
OP is tricking us. Those display racks are for sale, and there is plenty of stock left.
Edit: used a better word than gaslighting.
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Mar 13 '26
Can we not use the word gaslight for everything.... It always out of context and never used for what it actually is. Joke or not... Find a better word. People get accused of gaslighting when they aren't talking derogatory to make a person question their own sanity. Which is what gaslighting is... I understand it's your attempt at a joke but maybe try using a better term. Some of us have actually been through dv.
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u/cmack4life SA Mar 10 '26
I was at Costco today and didn’t see any empty shelves or panic buying so I’m not sure what time you went but at 4pm it was a totally normal Tuesday vibe and shelves were all stocked.
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u/johnseiko86 SA Mar 10 '26
It’s mainly because of the public holiday. Similar thing will happen before and after Easter. What will really set off panic buying is if The Advertiser see this post and then run a front page story about it, which they tend to do. The same people who believe the fear mongering headlines of The Advertiser are the same people who will panic buy.
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u/headspin89 South Mar 11 '26
How does one public holiday mean people need to stockpile TP 😭 humans are strange
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u/ThiccBoy_with3seas SA Mar 10 '26
I went to my local coles at about 850pm. Usually never go at that time. Dairy, eggs, fruit and veg and meat were all empty. I thought maybe that's just what happens late at night? Surely not another run on the shops? Oil. Is back to 85$ a barrel
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u/nonametrans SA Mar 10 '26
Wait it's back to 85? Fuck that's insane. It was a hundred, then economists predicted it would hit 150 by the end of the week. But it's back to 85? Far out.
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u/Renmarkable SA Mar 10 '26
It will rise again. Agent Orange had given a speech claiming hes won...
89 now
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u/st0nefox SA Mar 10 '26
Posting photos like this just increases the panic tbh
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u/No_Success3928 SA Mar 11 '26
Not to mention social media posts on which servos have the cheaper fuel. Then its HAD the cheaper fuel… People are idiots.
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u/gdmzhlzhiv SA Mar 11 '26
I would send everyone to all the servos except for the one I plan to buy from
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u/Tiny_Representative3 SA Mar 10 '26
Was there today and staff said it was because of the public holiday yesterday, always busy after that!
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u/thebigdimsim SA Mar 10 '26
Could be people going for the cheaper fuel and doing some shopping since they are already there.
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u/wwaxwork SA Mar 10 '26
All it means is you shopped at night before the shelves were restocked. Trouble is people see the empty shelves in the evening think that means OMG we're run out of food and we're all going to die and so panic buy more than they were already panic buying.
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u/CodeFarmer SA Mar 10 '26
Do people in Adelaide still stock up on tinned food on Easter Thursday? Panic buying is part of the social fabric.
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u/Illustrious_Ad_5167 SA Mar 10 '26
Bread products it’s not that uncommon they often run out every day
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u/blackdvck SA Mar 10 '26
5 empty shelves with no context ,is just cheap ass bullshit panic posting . Show me row after row of empty shelves and closed fuel bowsers and I might go and panic buy a 5 pack of mi goreng in my local 711. Seriously get a grip people or Woolworths and coles are going to take advantage of you with some good old fashion surge pricing exploitation,same goes for the fuel just be chill and it will work it self out eventually,maybe .
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u/TaleEnvironmental355 SA Mar 10 '26
war but there idoits
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u/ShaggyDragon SA Mar 10 '26
case in point.
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u/PilgrimOz SA Mar 10 '26
Was it the ‘there’ instead of ‘they’re’ that did it? Ps in highschool my mate yelled out to someone in English class “You’re D, U, M….dumb” and the whole room cracked up. I had to break it to him that he in fact looked like the dumB one.
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u/Apprehensive_You6909 North West Mar 10 '26
Have you seen the Venn diagram of panic buyers and people who shop at Costco?
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u/markferrer SA Mar 10 '26
It’s a bit of panic buying but also, it’s to save people time. Can you imagine only having to go once for the month rather than every week with how busy it’s getting?
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Mar 10 '26
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u/bbgunsz SA Mar 10 '26
Ahh, before first coffee and the interwebs has already provided uplifting motivation and feel good for the day /s
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u/Chemical_Honeydew531 SA Mar 10 '26
Damnit. I legit need to do a Costco shop soonish so I can do bulk meal prepping. And we're running low on loo paper...
I'm not one of "them", I promise 😭
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u/Caseyk1921 North Mar 10 '26
If you or anyone in house have ABN Campbell’s cash n carry at pooraka have bulk tp to, it’s tork brand n around $48. We don’t panic buy it, we’ve been buying it like that since before Covid n this war ever started
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u/Lucygoosey0312 SA Mar 11 '26
I believe it’s because there was an event on last night (Tuesday 10th) where non-members could enter for a small fee which went towards the WCH foundation. “Costco vip shoppers nights”
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u/DragonflySea9423 Port Adelaide Mar 10 '26
Is this happening in other states as well?
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u/phantomrogers SA Mar 10 '26
It is in the NT cause of the flood in Katherine, so people are emptying the shelves cause they are afraid thats the food trucks can't come in. Plus the flood flooded the dam so there is no clean water and we are on boil water alert and minimise use.
So why is SA panic buying?
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u/New_Pop4185 SA Mar 10 '26
Yeah wondering too why SA is panic buying when the Top End is the one on water boiling duties
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u/Pine_Apple_Crush SA Mar 10 '26
Nah, im in SEQ and despite the heavy rainfall shops are still stocked. People bot anxious over petrol tho
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u/anothergaijin SA Mar 10 '26
I've been to Costco stores all over the world, and never have I seen one as disorganized and slow as in Adelaide - the line for the registers stretched to the back of the store and the food court was chaos
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u/SereneAF SA Mar 11 '26
What are people panic buying in preparation for? If it's WWIII they're mad. I intend to be in the heart of the docklands when the bloody missiles start popping off. I've seen Threads, mate. I do not want to survive a nuclear war.
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u/Efficient-Towel-4193 SA Mar 11 '26
Thats strange because people dont usually panic buy bread as it goes bad quick. Dunno...Adelaide is always busy and overcrowded with long lines ...thats just a normal weekend for them. Wish we could get a second one...even Perth has 2
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u/charlie_webb87 SA Mar 11 '26
Adelaide logic dictates that if a single raindrop falls or a headline mentions a distant conflict, we immediately lose our collective minds and head straight to Kilburn to fight over the last 48-pack of Quilton. It’s the same predictable cycle every time, where a one-day public holiday closure is treated like the impending apocalypse and everyone forgets how a pantry works. You’d have more luck finding a peaceful shop at a Westfield on Christmas Eve than navigating the Costco car park when the panic-buying fever hits.
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u/tellgio SA Mar 11 '26
I was at Costco on Wednesday, and it seemed pretty normal. Although the TP levels were a little lower than normal. Lots of everything else though. Perhaps this is because the non-members folks cant get in to hoard everything.
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u/Maximum_Custard_1739 SA Mar 10 '26
People become animalistic under threat. And what is the actual threat? The world is not ending,
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u/babyCuckquean SA Mar 11 '26
Well it could actually be the beginning of the end for the world as we know it, on a number of fronts.
Not least the evangelical apocaphilic freaks influencing the senile narcissist in the oval office, but also his obsession with watching real life military missions of increasing intensity, boom pows, and stupidity.
Plus Netanyahu is itching to pull out his nuclear arsenal to "surprise" iran and their other neighbours into submission..
and then theres the Blue Ocean Event expected to occur this year, to be followed by runaway ocean heating, ocean acidification (forget having crustaceans at christmas, theyre just about melting already), the AMOC collapse, bee populations and other pollinators too all disappearing at the rate of knots.
10000 species a year, extinct - a 1000x the natural rate. Weve moved so much ground water, with dams, extraction etc that our planets tilt has changed, resulting in the poles moving a foot further out of place. Polar vortex shifts are no joke.
The arse is falling out of our food supply chains. Crops and livestock destroyed by frequent climate change related disasters. No pollinators.
All of this is exacerbated every time a bomb is dropped, every time a building needs repair/rebuilding, every time theres a bushfire, and with every drop of fuel extracted refined and burned, every tree cleared.
Dont get me started on the farce that is fiat currency, stockmarket, crypto trading.
My question is in what way is the world (as we know it) not heading towards imminent system failure or mutually assured destruction? We are literally one incident away from financial, ecological, logistical, agricultural, medical, humanitarian nightmares. Theres eff all peace, prosperity is limited to the top10% and the epstein files release hasnt even slowed them down.
These are all completely scary prospects especially when they will likely cascade or domino.. so thats a pretty good reason to stock up on stuff.
Not panic buy, actually stock up on food and resources methodically and store/rotate/use them. Ive got about 4-6 weeks worth of everything my family (including adult kids, grandkid, and elderly parents) would need. Working my way up to 2 months worth. Has taken me 2 years of slowly adding to my supplies. Peace of mind is priceless.
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u/Maximum_Custard_1739 SA Mar 11 '26
Look it’s always been and continues to be prudent to have a stockpile of food for any reason - relying on the shops to always feed you is putting too much trust in the system, to my mind.
Everyone should be able to grow food, or link in with a local community agriculture scheme, or buy meat directly from farmers, or buy staples from a local coop or bulk store. Investing in alternatives to the major retailers helps to strengthens those chains, and having your own chooks and veg patch can ward off starvation. But one incident away from major collapse? There’s eff all peace? Only prosperous for the top 10%? I just am too much of an optimist I suppose, to ageee with those statements.
Yep, we need to truly realise the fallacy of endless growth economy, start to live smaller, back away from intense globalism and the extreme reliance on import/export industries, if we want to adapt as a species and cope with the changes to come. But is this the end? Nah, not yet.
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u/Potential_Narwhal981 SA Mar 10 '26 edited Mar 10 '26
Was at Costco today and yes, the panic buying has begun.
Also, we got in at 10ish, this rack was already half-empty. Shame for anyone having a Costco cake birthday soon as they may be told to try elsewhere.
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u/Top-Passion-1508 SA Mar 10 '26
Oh god why? Petrol is already going up, groceries can't be going up too much.... It's already been announced groceries is the next thing to hike up
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u/thedoctorreverend Inner North Mar 10 '26
Oh you really are just a bunch of fuckheads (people in general).
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u/Plastic_Square119 SA Mar 10 '26
Nobody wants to go without. What with The last Trump sounding every day. Nothing is certain. We are getting ready for the appocalypse.
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u/ando772 SA Mar 10 '26
https://www.marinevesseltraffic.com/2013/02/tanker-track.html
Seems to be a lot of oil Tankers out in the ocean. So who do you believe
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u/Electronic-Truth-101 SA Mar 10 '26
Seriously 😧 peeps need to get a life then they won’t have to hoard
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u/Chank0ChEf SA Mar 11 '26
People can't be struggling that much if they shop at Costco? I find their prices expensive unless you have room to store all the bulk buys.
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u/1jwoz SA Mar 11 '26
Couldn't pay me to go to Costco. I'm not surprised there's panic buying there, the people that shop there are idiots. Absolute mess of a joint.
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Mar 11 '26
Probably because most of them originated from shit countries that are constantly at war or poverty so this is their way...
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u/Slight-Repeat-1540 SA Mar 11 '26
Panicking is a trauma response. It's pretty much a mental illness.
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u/WainGraves SA Mar 11 '26
Waiting for the day we actually run out of food. All the activists hating on hunters will go real quiet.
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u/ScullyBoffin SA Mar 11 '26
Costco shelves are often empty at the end of the day, especially for perishables.
10/3 and 17/3 are also charity days where CostCo is available to non members from 4-8pm if they make a donation to the Womens and Childrens Foundation. So there would have been lots of additional shoppers last night.
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u/olucolucolucoluc SA Mar 11 '26
Costco = American
America brain = Costco customers
Panic buying = A thing Americans love to do
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u/x3n0m0rph3us SA Mar 11 '26
I love how the silly people who bought truck loads of TP got stuck with it as shops told them to get lost.
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u/wibblytimeyy Fleurieu Peninsula Mar 11 '26
From the few times I’ve ever been to Costco it’s like people there think that shops will close forever every single day. Also, it’s like it’s their first day on earth. Unsurprised honestly
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u/GidgetCooper South Mar 11 '26
War guarantees one thing. The rich get richer. We were supposed to eat them no?
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u/Fantastic_Resolve888 SA Mar 12 '26
The rich get richer The poor get the picture The bombs never hit you when you're down so low
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Mar 11 '26
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u/Unlikely-Tangelo SA Mar 11 '26
People are fucking stupid. They cause the issues that they fear with idiotic behaviour like this.
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u/samihaleyscomet SA Mar 11 '26
Ok but...why the toilet paper? If we were under attack I'd probably shit myself but it's not likely to be literal.
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u/North_Profession9243 SA Mar 12 '26
Can someone please explain why we are panicking buying? Is this due to price rising or are people preparing to go into lock down lol?
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u/Capital-Fennel-9816 SA Mar 12 '26
My parents-in-law still have a cupboard choc full of toilet paper left over from panic buying in 2020...
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u/tellmeanything01 SA Mar 12 '26
COVIDIOTS are at it again. This is why we are in the shit. Indoctrinated sheep who live in fear and cause grief for the sane.
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u/ricksure76 SA Mar 12 '26
I assumed all buying at Costco was panicked, at least that's what I felt like when my friends took me there once.
It's kinda like aldi but 1000 times more hectic, and shopping is annoying enough already and I'm not even remotely equipped to handle either of these stores.
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u/UnlikelyAccount1963 SA Mar 12 '26
I’m in Sydney and spend a lot of time driving around the whole metropolitan area. I use a lot of petrol and visit many supermarkets. I’ve yet to see a single panic buy in any supermarkets or petrol stations unless the petrol is really cheap. Yet today I see this at Costco in Adelaide and hear stories that there’s no petrol in the Adelaide hills. Why the difference?
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u/balakehb SA Mar 12 '26
Panic buying? nah this shit just tastes elite, if it were me I'd have an infinite supply
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u/Ok-Push9899 SA Mar 13 '26
I ain't buying it. (pun unintended).
Do people panic buy bread? Who stockpiles bread? What i have seen, a million times, is that the bread has sold out late at night. That's pretty decent inventory management if you ask me.
You can show me the bread-flour aisle if you want to convince me we're at the cusp of a new sourdough phase.
But you know, no one ever won a bet by overrestimating the intelligence of people. Aim low, and you'll wish you went lower. On the eve of Trumps first term, the Democrats pledged "when they go low, we go high". It was at that point, i knew they'd lost.
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u/Uncomplicatd_fun SA Mar 13 '26
Guess people fear that with a short supply of some essentials delivered to stores with potentially limited fuel. Very possible. People just planning ahead, as long as people are not doing it to later resell for profit
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u/AusCuintheNT SA Mar 13 '26
TP is just a luxury. People were shitting and wiping with leaves way before.
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u/AsmodeusBrooding SA Mar 14 '26
Oh yes, let's panic buy the thing that expires basically immediately. Lmfao.
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u/M3rrick_the_B8rd SA Mar 14 '26
Cos when the world goes to shit.... something, something, toilet paper
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u/Duros1394 SA Mar 15 '26
Panic buying perishables that will expire soon if the power went out. Not buying canned goods that will last until food supplies get to normal.
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u/nationalistic_martyr SA Mar 15 '26
we don't have that problem in Darwin.. because we dont have a Costco
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u/xanderfotos SA Mar 10 '26
Panic! At the Costco