Long lines, bare shelves at South Bay grocery stores
Customers queue up outside the Hermosa Beach Trader Joe’s Monday morning. South Bay grocery stores reported long lines and high demand. Photo As authorities delivered grim warnings about the novel coronavirus last Thursday, an idea spread among South Bay residents with the force and quickness of a contagion: buy toilet paper. Mirroring trends across the country, shoppers late last week began descending on Vons, Trader Joe’s, Ralphs, Whole Foods and other area stores, creating long lines, packed parking lots, shortages of certain items, and frayed nerves. Stores responded by cutting back hours to give more time to clean and restock, limiting the amount of particular items a customer may purchase, and, in some cases, limiting the number of people allowed inside at one time. That was the strategy Trader Joe’s started deploying Monday morning, when a line stretched into the parking lot. An employee stood at the store’s entrance, letting in one shopper for each one that exited. Customers waiting in the line said they were told by employees that the store was trying to limit the store’s occupancy to 50 people, in line with guidance offered by Gov. Gavin Newsom the day before. Kenya…
Read this story on easyreadernews.com