COVID-19 Empty Shelves

By Ethan Cruz COVID-19: Empty Shelves

Toilet paper and bread were some of the first items to fly off the shelves as COVID-19 started getting closer to home as seen here in the Rancho Cucamonga Stater Brothers (photos 1 & 2) and the San Bernardino Costco (photos 3 & 4). California Governor Gavin Newsom put a stay at home unless going for essential errands order to the state, on March 19. Photos 1 & 2 by: Andrew Chang, Photos 3 & 4 by Danelle Taylor Johnston

14 | LLA Mirror The COVID-19 stands for Coronavirus disease of 2019. The disease first showed up in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019 and has spread to numerous other countries over the next few months. Ever since the virus hit the United States, a lot of people have been panicking and immediately started stockpiling on lots of food and other necessities, most commonly paper goods, soap, hand sanitizer, and rice. This has led to a lot of food shortages and empty shelves in grocery stores. Panic buying and workers not going to work because of the virus made it hard for grocery stores to keep up the demand. “I went to the 99 ranch mar

ket in Rancho Cucamonga and then I went to Stater Brothers after that,” Andrew Chang (12) said. “At the 99 Ranch Market there weren’t a lot of empty shelves, but the rice section was empty for the most part.” Chang said at Stater Brother’s in Rancho Cucamonga the first thing he “noticed on my way in was the oatmeal section was gone [and] the bread section was completely empty too. ” Keltin Harris (10th) said, “When I went to the grocery store mainly the toilet paper/ paper towel section and the canned food section was empty.” Harris said, “When I saw the empty shelves it kind of made me think that an apoca

lypse was about to happen.” Gabby Marpaung (11th) said she was confused why only certain things were gone. “I understood people were in a panic when they heard they were gonna have to stay at home a lot. But there was still plenty of cereal boxes, snacks, and even medicine that had yet to be touched. And I found it funny how the meats were all gone, but there were still plenty of vegetables in stock.” The best thing we can do is to not panic. Washing hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds and staying at home are good protections against the virus and shopping for only what we need to leave items for others too.