Retailers have been reporting panic buying in their stores, ahead of the onset of the Orange weather warning for Carlow, Kilkenny and the South East.
Images shared to social media have shown empty bread shelves in numerous stores throughout the country, with customers reportedly buying 4 to 5 loaves at a time.
Earlier, Carlow Weather’s Alan O’Reilly shared a photo of empty shelves in a Tesco, writing “ah lads.”
The conditions in supermarkets have reminded some of the “Beast from the East” in 2018, or the panic buying that accompanied the onset of Covid-19 restrictions in 2020.
At Hickson’s Supervalu in Tullow, Fresh Food Manager Brendan Keogh has advised people that though he can understand their concerns, there is no need to panic over the weekend.
He advised that the store had experienced panic buying, stating that “I suppose yesterday morning it started, bread being the first thing to be hit, you could see in the trolleys people were buying 4 or 5 loaves.”
He then noted that this extended into the milk section, after a late delivery caused customers to buy more milk in case supplies had been affected.
“We’ll be open here, unless there’s drastic, drastic weather”, he assured customers, “and we’ve been assured by breadmen that deliveries might be a little late, but we will have bread, and the same for the milk and the fresh foods.”
