Grocery stores are trying to keep up with demand during coronavirus outbreak – KGW.com

VANCOUVER, Wash. Grocery stores like Chuck's Produce in Vancouver are seeing more customers than normal.

"The easiest words are absolutely crazy, just for the simple fact that all of a sudden this kind of just snuck up on us and nobody was really prepared."

Shawn Jarrett is the store manager for the company's Hazel Dell location. He says this past weekend was very busy.

"Sales were way above what we thought they would be for the end of last week and Sunday, we had people down the aisles. Sundays are busy for us, but not that busy."

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With only two stores, Chuck's is competing for product along with the bigger stores. Jarrett says the bigger demand is making it harder to get supplies.

"For us, it's a supply and demand issue, so there's a huge demand, but a very small supply. And so were up against everybody else trying to buy for whatever sitting in the warehouses to get to our stores to put on our shelves to sale. That's a huge issue for us right now, not just for us, but for everybody."

"Having the groceries delivered is vital, without it, I'm not quite sure what we'll do." Cynthia Thayer is like many who can't get to grocery stores because they have a weakened immune system. She's diabetic, has asthma and ulcerative colitis. She uses home delivery services like Amazon Prime and Instacart. Even home delivery services are having a hard time meeting demand and same day delivery promises.

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"With Amazon they didn't give me any date, with New Seasons Instacart I can get something on Thursday and today is Monday."

Thayer says she has enough food on hand for the next two weeks with canned and prepared foods, but fresh fruit and meat is what she'd really like.

Others like Veronica Gaston are limiting their outside exposure.

"Even though I'm not sick, I am self-quarantined because my doctor said I should do self-quarantine having cancer and it could put my life in danger."

She tried to do home delivery, but her local Safeway doesn't serve Grande Ronde where she lives. She called another Safeway, 24 miles away in Dallas and spoke with a manager.

"I needed everyday stuff, food items. Nothing like toilet paper hand sanitizer. I don't need anything like that. It's just everyday food items like milk, eggs, cheese and a few non-perishable food items," Gaston said.

She says the manager did her shopping for her and made it easy for pick up. She drove into Dallas, and paid for the groceries at customer service and walked out.

"I was in and out of that Safeway in about 5 minutes, which I think is fabulous that they would do that for me." Gaston says.

Governor Kate Brown urged everyone Monday to only buy supplies of what they needed, limiting themselves to a week's worth. That way, those that really needed those items could get to them.

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Grocery stores are trying to keep up with demand during coronavirus outbreak - KGW.com