With many shelves bare at Okanagan grocery stores since catastrophic flooding blocked transport routes, the organization representing major grocery chains has a message for consumers.
“You’re not going to run out of food,” said Greg Wilson, director of government relations (B.C.) for the Retail Council of Canada.
With all of the major highways connecting the B.C. Interior and Lower Mainland closed due to mudslides and floodwaters, Okanagan residents have been flocking to stores to stock up on supplies, fearful the food supply is at risk.
“It seems to be more consumer panic than I expected,” Wilson told Global News.
“There’s no reason that all shelves should be as empty as they are.”
“This is because people are buying stuff that’s available because they are worried that they can’t get other things.”
Many stores have very low to no inventory of certain items including produce, meat, dairy and bread.
But Wilson said despite the highway closures impacting the supply chain, the Interior is well connected to other supply sources and will continue to receive product.
“Individual grocery chains are finding ways to get products from other places. So for the Interior, they’d be looking to Alberta and Washington State to get some of those supplies. That’ll take a few days to find that workaround and to secure that stuff and transport it to the stores but it will happen,” Wilson said.
“There is a strong supply of food available and it’s just going to be delayed getting to the stores.”
The panic buying is already having an impact at the Central Okanagan Food Bank.
“It’s actually having a big impact on us,” said chief executive officer Trevor Moss. “Because we have a food recovery program, where we collect perishable items from 15 different retail stores and grocery stores.”
Through the program, grocers donate perishable items to the food bank that would otherwise go to waste but with such low inventory at stores, the food bank is receiving little to no items.
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“Basically today our trucks came back empty, simply because of the panic buying,” said Moss. “So that’s very unfortunate.”
It means that food hampers for those in need will have to be reduced and contain mostly non-perishable items.
Seniors with mobility issues and those on low income are expected to be among the hardest hit as many consumers fill up their pantries with a lot more than they need.
“They don’t have that extra money in the account, so they can kind of line up with everyone else that’s doing it – the panic buying – unfortunately,” Moss said.
The food bank is looking to the public to make any donations it can to help some of the community’s most vulnerable people.
“We would love for you to be able to donate,” Moss said.
Wilson urges consumers to put the brakes on panic buying, saying it is creating more problems than it solves.
“I would have thought that consumers would have learned from the pandemic experience that that really wasn’t helpful,” Wilson said. “It deprives your neighbors and friends of products and, you know, in the end, there was increased spoilage because some of the extra purchases couldn’t be used.”
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