Why are people hoarding melatonin? And other questions

[Jalapeñomel]

you’re dying to ask and have nothing better to do.

[Leeham Rimes]

Giving it to their kids bc they’re super done with 24/7 togetherness? No? Just me? Oh well.

[wildrice]

Lots of people are having trouble sleeping right now? That's my only guess.

My mom says people are apparently hoarding acetone nail polish remover. She has gel nails and they need to come off, but she's having a heck of a time finding anything to remove them.

[eb777888]

Shit. People are hoarding melatonin? I just realized we're low on it.

[wambam]

I continue to be bewildered by the bottled water. When I went to Costco two weeks ago, nearly every person had at least one case. I don’t understand it in normal conditions because Dayton water is delicious but I really don’t understand it now.

[lemoncupcake]

There’s a difference between people hoarding and more people needing a product.

More people are probably having trouble sleeping and buying melatonin when they don’t usually (or buying more than usual).

The huge swaths of the population who get their nails professionally done regularly are now unable to do so, so are now buying nail polish remover when they don’t usually.

Neither of those is “hoarding”

[icedcoffee]

I don’t know, but I’ve been taking it nightly to settle down and normally don’t. Probably more of people like me out there I’d guess. Thankfully I had a huge supply already.

[dochas]

Apr 7, 2020 7:58:28 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

There’s a difference between people hoarding and more people needing a product.

More people are probably having trouble sleeping and buying melatonin when they don’t usually (or buying more than usual).

The huge swaths of the population who get their nails professionally done regularly are now unable to do so, so are now buying nail polish remover when they don’t usually.

Neither of those is “hoarding”

Thank you. This is really starting to get on my nerves. Everyone thinks that when they can't get something, it's because of hoarding. Are you hoarding the thing you're looking to buy??? Someone in my local facebook group said that a cashier that gave her a roll of paper towels from behind the counter was hoarding it.

[meowmaps]

Obtaining groceries/food of any kind is getting my blood pressure up. We're being told to avoid grocery stores, but then there's got to be a more efficient other way. I literally can't get half the products I need when placing an order for pickup. Instacart has failed me twice (not even processed my order) and now I'm trying to order for pickup directly through Wegmans and I cannot get a time slot. WTF are people supposed to do? This is compounding the anxiety I'm already experiencing. How are people getting this stuff before it goes out of stock? How are they getting a time slot? Are they getting up at 2:00am and doing it then?

[Captain Serious]

Also, there are issues in supply right now. Places that normally produce things are either closed or can't get the materials they need to make their products, so there are shortages of everyday things.

[Captain Serious]

Apr 7, 2020 8:23:25 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Obtaining groceries/food of any kind is getting my blood pressure up. We're being told to avoid grocery stores, but then there's got to be a more efficient other way. I literally can't get half the products I need when placing an order for pickup. Instacart has failed me twice (not even processed my order) and now I'm trying to order for pickup directly through Wegmans and I cannot get a time slot. WTF are people supposed to do? This is compounding the anxiety I'm already experiencing. How are people getting this stuff before it goes out of stock? How are they getting a time slot? Are they getting up at 2:00am and doing it then?

I don't know about Wegmans, but Hannaford opened up their time slots at midnight. Yesterday I hit the button to pick up time slot right at midnight and still didn't get a slot. We have since placed an order with Shaw's, which will arrive anytime in the next 5 days.

[Leeham Rimes]

H and I just had a fight about shopping, so that’s awesome!

[meowmaps]

Apr 7, 2020 8:28:01 GMT -5 Captain Serious said:

Apr 7, 2020 8:23:25 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Obtaining groceries/food of any kind is getting my blood pressure up. We're being told to avoid grocery stores, but then there's got to be a more efficient other way. I literally can't get half the products I need when placing an order for pickup. Instacart has failed me twice (not even processed my order) and now I'm trying to order for pickup directly through Wegmans and I cannot get a time slot. WTF are people supposed to do? This is compounding the anxiety I'm already experiencing. How are people getting this stuff before it goes out of stock? How are they getting a time slot? Are they getting up at 2:00am and doing it then?

I don't know about Wegmans, but Hannaford opened up their time slots at midnight. Yesterday I hit the button to pick up time slot right at midnight and still didn't get a slot. We have since placed an order with Shaw's, which will arrive anytime in the next 5 days.

So it sounds like there is some kind of system. I guess I’ll have to stay up tonight and give it a try. I anticipate the time slot being several days out which is why I’m already stressed about having failed to obtain one yesterday.

[followyourarrow]

Where is all the coffee creamer?? I'm sure it's just that people are drinking more coffee as they work from home, just like I am, but I'm missing my french vanilla creamer.

[fivechickens]

Apr 7, 2020 8:38:35 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Apr 7, 2020 8:28:01 GMT -5 Captain Serious said:

I don't know about Wegmans, but Hannaford opened up their time slots at midnight. Yesterday I hit the button to pick up time slot right at midnight and still didn't get a slot. We have since placed an order with Shaw's, which will arrive anytime in the next 5 days.

So it sounds like there is some kind of system. I guess I’ll have to stay up tonight and give it a try. I anticipate the time slot being several days out which is why I’m already stressed about having failed to obtain one yesterday.

I stayed up until midnight to get a Kroger pickup that was a week out. I have heard people getting a pickup date only a couple days out.




And come on, sure there is more of a surplus of people needing things that they would not normally need but for shelves to be bare is more than that. People are understandably freaked out and so are buying more than they need (i.e. hoarding). A bottle of nail polish remover can last me months and I do my nails regularly (almost daily) so a person only needs one bottle. If the shelves are bare someone/people are buying more than they need. My friend is having a hard time finding Imodium that he needs on a regular basis. He can’t find it anywhere. People ARE hoarding and it’s ridiculous.

[RoxMonster]

We are still going to the store once a week and wearing masks. Our neighbors have tried grocery delivery from three different stores and they always have to wait almost a week for slots and then don’t get half the things on their list or unusable substitutions (like instead of plain Greek yogurt for a recipe, they got chocolate hazelnut). It would defeat the purpose for me because if I couldn’t make any of my planned recipes, I’d still have to go to the store myself. It’s easier to see “Oh they’re out of XYZ so I’ll do a different recipe” while at the store. Going to the store for food is allowed under our SIP so we are still going and being careful, also going at off-hours where it’s not busy at all.

[kath16]

trying to find chewable Pepcid for my kid's chronic heartburn has proven difficult for some reason

[ssmjlm]

Is anyone finding toilet paper? We're not dire yet, but if we can't find some in the next week or so, we might be rationing.

[icedcoffee]

I'll admit that we haven't really struggled to get what we need. We've been going to the grocery store once per week. This week it was twice because H went to Costco also, but we should be good on Costco for around a month now. They didn't have baby wipes, but that's really it and I can order some online. Maybe because we're not super picky it's been a bit easier? Costco was out of ground turkey so we got ground beef instead. The regular chicken we buy was out so we bought some chicken tenderloin things instead. It's been fine.

A lot of this is likely regional. We're outside DC.

We're saving the instacart type services for those who really need them and taking as many precautions as we can otherwise. I do think people who use these services are going to feel like the shelves are more bare than they are because they aren't there to see the other options for themselves. Like my H could easily just grab the ground beef when the turkey was gone, but a grocery delivery service might just cancel the item completely.

[thebreakfastclub]

As someone who works in corporate retail for an essential retailer, part of it certainly is that we are prioritizing what gets sent to stores right now.

We are focusing on food, OTC, essential items.

An item like nail polish remover would be dropped from replenishment right now. It also depends on timing with deliveries inbound from our suppliers, and their specific supply chain needs.

Personally, we are going to Wal-Mart at 8am on Sunday mornings, and it is pretty quiet and hassle-free at that time. I would prefer to go in and get what we need and be done.

[Patsy Baloney]

I don’t think I’m hoarding, but I’m certain I’m contributing to the problem. We’re buying 2 weeks of groceries instead of our usual 1 week, and when we spot things that keep and that we consume a lot of (chicken nuggets, vegetables, canned fruits) we buy extra.

I don’t know what’s right to do. Either I buy my usual stuff and we’re in the grocery store at least once per week, or we’re buying more than usual and disrupting the supply.

[prettypitties]

Apr 7, 2020 9:18:00 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Is anyone finding toilet paper? We're not dire yet, but if we can't find some in the next week or so, we might be rationing.

We were having a difficult time, but to be fair I wasn't going to 3-4 stores at a time to find it. We had enough on hand that if they didn't have it at my normal grocery store, I just shrugged it off until my next trip. MH stopped by a discount grocery store (Grocery Outlet) over the weekend and was able to score a 24 pack of some generic brand. He said they had a ton. 

[gogadgetgo]

Apr 7, 2020 7:44:27 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

you’re dying to ask and have nothing better to do.

I’ve heard a theory that high melatonin levels in kids might be a reason they aren’t as affected by covid as adults. I have nothing to back that up. But it might be a reason for people to stock up

[dochas]

Apr 7, 2020 8:58:30 GMT -5 fivechickens said:

Apr 7, 2020 8:38:35 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

So it sounds like there is some kind of system. I guess I’ll have to stay up tonight and give it a try. I anticipate the time slot being several days out which is why I’m already stressed about having failed to obtain one yesterday.

I stayed up until midnight to get a Kroger pickup that was a week out. I have heard people getting a pickup date only a couple days out.




And come on, sure there is more of a surplus of people needing things that they would not normally need but for shelves to be bare is more than that. People are understandably freaked out and so are buying more than they need (i.e. hoarding). A bottle of nail polish remover can last me months and I do my nails regularly (almost daily) so a person only needs one bottle. If the shelves are bare someone/people are buying more than they need. My friend is having a hard time finding Imodium that he needs on a regular basis. He can’t find it anywhere. People ARE hoarding and it’s ridiculous.

They don't stock that much nail polish remover. I don't get my nails done, so I have nail polish remover. I know 2 other women that do their own nails. Literally every other woman I see or know gets them done. If 1 person a week usually buys nail polish remover, and this week 50 were looking for it, it doesn't mean 1 person hoarded it. It means the 6 bottles on the shelf sold out. 

ETA: We use ibuprofen, not acetaminophen. When I first heard that ibuprofen might be a problem if taken while you have the virus, I went and bought Tylenol. It was almost entirely sold out. I got a generic adult, and they had a 2 pack of children's at the pharmacy. I contributed to the lack of Tylenol, because I was buying so they sold more than they usually would have stocked. That's not hoarding, but the empty shelves would have someone screaming "HOARDERS TOOK MY TYLENOL!"

[litskispeciality]

Apr 7, 2020 9:22:27 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I don’t think I’m hoarding, but I’m certain I’m contributing to the problem. We’re buying 2 weeks of groceries instead of our usual 1 week, and when we spot things that keep and that we consume a lot of (chicken nuggets, vegetables, canned fruits) we buy extra.

I don’t know what’s right to do. Either I buy my usual stuff and we’re in the grocery store at least once per week, or we’re buying more than usual and disrupting the supply.

We're kind of the same way. We're about to "start the biggest surge" in my area, so they don't want you to shop unless you have too. Instacart isn't avb in my area, we tried, so shopping is our only option. We still do take out delivery a couple of days a week so that helps stretch what we have, but I'm always worried we'll run out.

We can add dishwasher soap to the "hoarding" list. We're running the dishwasher every other day, when normally it's every few days. We bought an extra bag because it seems like soap of all kinds is hard to get. One or two extra bags seems to be hoarding now.

My question is if it's ok to touch/use money/pay with cash? I forgot MIL's bday and we usually send her cash which they really need right now, but we don't have enough in house. I'm kinda freaked out to use the ATM as money is dirty anyway. They don't have Venmo (which I don't like anyway) and if we mail them a check they have to leave the house to go to the bank...so cash seems our best option.

[CloudBee]

I didn't realize that it's become hard to get. I've started taking melatonin because I'm not sleeping well at night. I've never taken it before, but it's helping.

I also watched a video where a doctor mentioned that melatonin is an antioxidant, children tend to have more of it in their systems, and giving it to Covid patients has proven effective in other countries. I've only seen that ONE source mentioning this, but it has me wondering.

We used to give it to our dog and had a bottle left after he passed away earlier this year. I'm finishing off his last bottle.

[InBetweenDays]

Apr 7, 2020 9:42:06 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Apr 7, 2020 9:22:27 GMT -5 Patsy Baloney said:

I don’t think I’m hoarding, but I’m certain I’m contributing to the problem. We’re buying 2 weeks of groceries instead of our usual 1 week, and when we spot things that keep and that we consume a lot of (chicken nuggets, vegetables, canned fruits) we buy extra.

I don’t know what’s right to do. Either I buy my usual stuff and we’re in the grocery store at least once per week, or we’re buying more than usual and disrupting the supply.

We're kind of the same way. We're about to "start the biggest surge" in my area, so they don't want you to shop unless you have too. Instacart isn't avb in my area, we tried, so shopping is our only option. We still do take out delivery a couple of days a week so that helps stretch what we have, but I'm always worried we'll run out.

We can add dishwasher soap to the "hoarding" list. We're running the dishwasher every other day, when normally it's every few days. We bought an extra bag because it seems like soap of all kinds is hard to get. One or two extra bags seems to be hoarding now.

My question is if it's ok to touch/use money/pay with cash? I forgot MIL's bday and we usually send her cash which they really need right now, but we don't have enough in house. I'm kinda freaked out to use the ATM as money is dirty anyway. They don't have Venmo (which I don't like anyway) and if we mail them a check they have to leave the house to go to the bank...so cash seems our best option.

Yes, it's safe to get out/touch cash. Just wash your hands after. I also saw something awhile ago that bills are safer than coins since the virus lives longer on hard surfaces. So the cash should be fine for your MIL when she receives it.

[dochas]

Also - I understand the feeling that others are hoarding when you're not getting what you need. We're in an incredibly stressful situation. It's hard to know the right thing to do. We usually shop more than once a week, now it's every 10 days or so, so we are buying more than usual. I'm not buying ALL the ground beef, but I often only get it when I'm completely out. Now, even though we had a couple of pounds in the freezer my husband picked up another package while out because we're trying not to go out. We only get peanut butter at the large supermarket, but we most of our shopping at Aldi. Under normal circumstances we get at least 4 jars of peanut butter because we go through it fast and don't want to make extra trips. Now I'm sure it looks crazy to buy 2 or 3 jars of peanut butter, like we're hoarding it, but my son goes through a jar a week.

My husband is also a healthcare worker and we are more at risk of getting it. At any point we could be quarantined for 2 weeks. I don't want to run down to nothing in the house because I need to be prepared for the possibility of not being able to get food at all for 2+ weeks. Again, we're not hoarding but we're stocking for 2 weeks at a time and so are a lot of other people.

[killercupcake]

Apr 7, 2020 7:57:55 GMT -5 wambam said:

I continue to be bewildered by the bottled water. When I went to Costco two weeks ago, nearly every person had at least one case. I don’t understand it in normal conditions because Dayton water is delicious but I really don’t understand it now.

The water thing baffles me.

A local strip club (lol Vegas) was giving out pallets of water in a drive up line last week.

Why? Our water system still works. It is so weird.

[dochas]

Apr 7, 2020 8:28:27 GMT -5 Leeham Rimes said:

H and I just had a fight about shopping, so that’s awesome!

It's incredibly stressful. I usually do the shopping and now my husband is doing it. I have control issues (i guess!) that are worse with stress, and I'm just so worried every time he goes. He's going to do our shopping for Easter and I said this has to be it. There's a place that does a pre-pack of different items each day and you can drive up and buy contact free, and we have to just start getting whatever we can from there. If they don't have it, it's not for us! Of all the things in life that can get you, I never thought groceries would be the thing that pushes me completely over the edge. This of course will mean that he has to get a lot of peanut butter when he shops this time ... an on and on I go on this hamster wheel of lunacy.