Customers searching for toilet paper, cleaning products as Texas stores limit purchases
Thomas Lake wasn’t in any panic Monday morning as he stood in line for the Walmart Beach Street to open, but he did need toilet paper.
“They were out of toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning products on Sunday,” Lake said Monday morning just before 6 a.m. “I came early to get those this morning. I like this idea of cutting hours and limiting purchases.”
Walmart on Beach Street was among the hundreds of stores across the country and Texas that began on Monday to cut hours and limit purchases because of coronavirus.
The change didn’t seem to cause panic to customers like Lake. There were no lines at a Tom Thumb in Hurst or Kroger in North Richland Hills Monday morning.
At 5 a.m., there were no long lines at the Walmart in Hurst. A few customers arrived early, but left when they were told the store would not open until 6 a.m.
Lake of Fort Worth has been going to the Walmart on Beach Street for 10 years, noting the store has cut hours before for holidays. Generally, the store is open 24 hours.
A sign at the Walmart on Beach Street alerted customers to the new hours. The sign said, “Attention Customers. Effective March 15th our temporary hours of operation will be 6 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. Thank you for your understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Lake said cutting hours and limiting purchases will help the situation.
“I think it reduces chaos,” he said. “And it allows stockers to go home.”
Lake doesn’t believe in hoarding products.
“I think hoarding increases panic and we need to reduce that,” Lake said. “Not everybody can run up here every single day and buy products.”
From Walmart to Albertsons, stores are limiting the purchase of high-demand items like sanitary wipes and canned soup. Many stores have been out-of-stock of some items for the past week and say reduced hours will help suppliers catch up with demand. Target and other retailers have said they will ramp up cleaning efforts in stores to prevent the spread of coronavirus, a flu-like illness.
As of Sunday afternoon, Tarrant County had reported four cases of the new coronavirus, also called COVID-19. People are urged to stay home unless necessary, avoiding close contact with other.
Concern over quarantining has prompted a rush to grocery stores, putting a strain on supplies.
To expedite delivery, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott waived some commercial trucking regulations, his office announced Saturday. On Sunday he waived state laws that prohibit trucks from the alcohol industry from delivering supplies to grocery stores as a way to provide grocers with another private-sector option to keep their shelves stocked.
Abbott declared a state of emergency Friday.
Oversize and overweight restrictions for commercial trucks have been suspended as well as the need to register under the International Registration Plan. The need to obtain 72-hour and 144-hour temporary registration permits is also waived, as long as the truck is registered in one of the states of the U.S.
Starting Sunday, Walmart stores and Neighborhood Markets will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. until further notice, the company said in a statement Saturday.
“This will help ensure associates are able to stock the products our customers are looking for and to perform cleaning and sanitizing,” the statement said.
Albertsons, owner of Tom Thumb, said in a statement on the company’s website it will limit high-demand items like hand sanitizers and household cleaners.
On Twitter, Kroger said it would limit store hours at some Texas locations to 7 a.m.-10 p.m.
H-E-B and its offshoot, Central Market, have limited all store hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The stores have also limited the amount of some items each person can buy. A complete list can be found at H-E-B’s website.
Starting Monday, all Trader Joe’s stores will be open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. until further notice, the company posted on its website.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 7:08 AM with the headline "Customers searching for toilet paper, cleaning products as Texas stores limit purchases."
