The coronavirus threat has cleaned out sanitary products and supplements from the shelves of supermarkets and pharmacies.
When Barbados TODAY visited several outlets, many reported they were out of rubbing and surgical alcohol, wipes, hand soap, dust masks, disinfectants and hand sanitizers.
Shelves at smaller shops were empty, while workers at larger stores were constantly restocking. Toilet paper was another commodity which was going fast, though there seemed to be enough of that on the shelves.
People are also attempting to boost their immune systems, as pharmacies and stores reported being emptied of Echinacea and several other immunity-boosting items on their shelves. Vitamin C supplements were also selling fast.
At Howard Enterprises in Bush Hall, Norma Springer concluded that from the rush the store had seen over the past few days, Barbadians are being proactive in their response to not only World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, but also advice from local health authorities on preparing for the virus.
An empty shelf at Howard supermarket which keeps rubbing alcohol and other sanitizing agents.
Springer told Barbados TODAY: “Here at Howard Enterprises in Bush Hall we are out of stock of all the recommended products. We are out of Lysol spray, alcohols are all gone. We only have two bottles of wintergreen alcohol left and that is only because that is only 50 per cent alcohol, even though the concentration is still there.
“But everything else is out of stock and we are really hoping the suppliers will restock us by next week.
“Suppliers have a rotation on how they are delivering so we have to wait our turn.
“But people are coming and they are calling us. But all we can do right now is recommend rum. We have some overproof rum which is of the same alcohol content that the health authorities have recommended.
“We also have carbolic soap and the recommendations from most of the health care authorities is to wash your hands while singing the three happy birthday songs or any song that you want.
“Carbolic soap is an excellent germicide and it is one of the most inexpensive soaps out there and we have plenty in stock.”
At Heritage Pharmacy, Spooner’s Hill, supervisor Rachel Francis said the pharmacy also sold out alcohol and other products. For the past couple of days, she said, customers have been asking for alcohol, vitamin C, Echinacea, gloves, glycerin to make their own hand sanitizer, painkillers – “basically what we would call the necessities”.
She said: “They want dust mask that you can’t find. Just not too long ago a lady was looking for aloe gel to make hand sanitizer which is basically glycerin and surgical alcohol.
“As fast as the suppliers bring stock I don’t even have time to put it on the shelves.
“They are literally just taking it out the box and this started from yesterday [Thursday].
“But I think what happened is when people heard that there are cases in St Vincent, Jamaica and Guyana, everybody went into a panic.
“That throw everybody into a panic and everybody decide let me get what I can get now.
“By 12 o’clock [Thursday] almost all my vitamin C, Echinacea, and zinc were gone off the shelves and we open at 9 a.m. This morning I was on the phone from early trying to get my suppliers to get even the hydrogen peroxide because the customers gone with that.
“The suppliers saying the fastest I could get stock is Monday. Hopefully some of the delivery guys get stuff to me by tomorrow.
“Hurricane season is bad, but not this bad.”
When Barbados TODAY visited Popular Discount supermarket, also on Spooners Hill, a “mad rush” was how an employee described the scene, as every trolley was in use. A walk through the aisles found workers busy restocking shelves, particularly where the rubbing alcohol and other sanitizing agents are kept. Several shoppers had their trolleys filled with toilet paper.
At one point there were no trolleys available at Popular Supermarket today as shoppers rushed to purchase sanitizing agents and other necessary items in preparation of COVID-19.
“Man, sometimes you ain’t even get to take the things out the boxes,” the worker said, as since Thursday, as shelves had to be restocked repeatedly.
A Black Rock pharmacy’s attendants said this was the busiest time “we have been in here in a long time”.
As soon as a few boxes of limited sanitizers were opened, they were sold out in less than ten minutes, with employees begging a few customers who had boxes in their hands to leave some for others.
Another pharmacy in Bank Hall said the decision was made to ration particular items.
At one location of health food store, Nature’s Discount, Echinacea and other immunity-boosting products which normally moved off the shelves quickly, were now gone.
Said one store clerk: “We are accustomed to these things just sitting on the shelves. But people want to boost their immune systems and they know they are good products so they came and bought them out. None of our locations have Echinacea right now.
“I don’t know if the purchasing manager had prepared for this, but we usually get stock at the end of the month. So all we can do is wait and see. But this rush came as a surprise to us. People are even buying up the anti-oxidants.”
Shopper Jennifer Atherley, 68, said there was nothing people could do but to prepare for the virus.
She told Barbados TODAY: “I am buying things for me and my daughter and her children.
“She is at work now so I had to come out the house and get the things that recommended. But I can’t seem to find any hand sanitizer.
“I heard somebody say that sanitizer hard to find so some people making their own. I went to about three pharmacies and can’t find any alcohol either, but my daughter told me she got a friend to buy some for us.”
Matthew Jones said: “I making sure my whole family ready to fight this thing. My mother old, my father old and my granny older than them and I hearing the old people getting it faster than we young people.
“So I just following what the people that know about it say to do, prepare and keep sanitizing.” anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb
