Effects of Coronavirus on Costco

The shelves are empty. This is *not* a joke.

Despite limits & rationing:
Bottled water is gone within 30 minutes
Toilet paper is gone despite two daily shipments (huge pallets of toilet paper)
Rice is gone
Beans are gone
No hand sanitizers
No face masks (gloves are still okay)
No isopropyl alcohol
Low supplies of disinfectants like Colorox, wipes, etc

Food samples in store have been temporary suspended

One manager told me head count per half hour was typically 400 ... some stores getting 1,000 customers per half hour. Pure pandemonium in some stores. Sales are way better than Christmas.

I get filtered water (via reverse osmosis & UV filtering) from my Food Coop or Supermarket at $0.40 per gallon vs bottled water (bottled water is bad for environment). I recommend buying safe 1 gallon & 2 gallon reusable containers. You have to wash the containers first. I get 4 gallons of filtered water per trip.

Water is heavy so I now use 1 or 2 gallon containers. I used to have 5 gallon containers then went to 3 gallon containers and finally bought a few 1 gallon containers; much easier to use and ration for specific purposes.

I have never seen anything like this before despite witnessing the West Nile Virus, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, etc.