Supermarkets limiting meat purchases amid tight supply and buyer panic

Meat is going the way of toilet paper, and grocery stores are rushing to stay ahead of panic buying as supplies tighten during the coronavirus pandemic.

Just as scared shoppers snapped up hand sanitizer, soap and yes, toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic, now they are rushing to stock meat.

Grocery chains across the country have begun limiting meat purchases. Costco and Kroger have instituted this in all stores, while others have done so in certain areas. With plants closing temporarily despite President Trump’s recent executive order to keep them open, processors such as Tyson and Smithfield have been warning of looming meat shortages. At least one fast food chain has already felt the heat.

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Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., is limiting chicken and fresh pork, capping them at two items each per customer at all stores.

“At this time, we’ve added purchase limits on chicken and fresh pork, and customers are being limited to two pork items and two chicken items,” corporate affairs manager for Kroger Mid-Atlantic Allison McGee told trade publication Supermarket News. “We are monitoring conditions and the supply chain daily for changes.”

Shoppers also have a role to play, McGee added.

“Additionally, we are asking our customers to shop responsibly and purchase what they need, knowing that we will continue to replenish stores daily,” she said.

Also limiting purchases to varying degrees, according to Supermarket News, are Hy-Vee, Costco; Giant Eagle a Pittsburgh-based, 200-store chain; H-E-B of San Antonio, Texas; Tops Friendly Markets in upstate New York; Giant Company, and Wegmans.

The chain Schnucks in St. Louis, Missouri, has placed a two-package limit per customer on all fresh beef purchases, and Dierbergs is limiting some items depending on store, KSDK-TV reported Monday.

At Costco, customers can only buy three packages of beef, poultry or pork, KSDK reported, while Fresh Thyme is limiting meat purchases to two packages per specific item, a spokesperson told the Daily News.

“Costco has implemented limits on certain items to help ensure more members are able to purchase merchandise they want and need,” Costco told Supermarket News. “Our buyers and suppliers are working hard to provide essential, high demand merchandise as well as everyday favorites.”

“Everybody’s afraid that people are panicking, and they’re going to grocery stores and will buy quite a lot,” Panos Kouvelis, Director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation at Washington University, told KSDK.

However, this is not due to a shortage of the actual product so much as the habits of consumers, retail analysts said.

“But there is not a shortage of meat, unless we have a situation like toilet paper and consumers create it,” Dave Davis, president of the Utah Food Industry Association, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Raleigh, N.C. customers are also seeing limits imposed on their buying, reported WRAL-TV, with Food Lion imposing restrictions, as well as Wegmans.

“It’s been a little on the light side, low stock,” one shopper told WRAL.

Hy-Vee Inc., an employee-owned chain operating 265 stores in eight Midwestern states, announced Tuesday it would limit meat purchases to maintain supply-chain integrity.

“We continue to work with industry leaders so we are prepared for any possible fluctuations in product and can best serve our customers,” the chain said in a statement. “At Hy-Vee, we have product available at our stores but due to worker shortages at plants as well as an increase in meat sales, customers may not find the specific items they are looking for. Because of this, we are going to put a limit on customer purchases in the meat department.”

As of Tuesday, each customer will be limited to “four packages of a combination of fresh beef, ground beef, pork and chicken,” the company said.

Meanwhile, workers continue to sicken at meatpacking facilities nationwide, reported Investigate Midwest, a nonprofit journalism organization, with at least 9,400 reported positive cases tied to meatpacking facilities at 167 plants or more plants in 28 states, the site reported Tuesday. At least 45 of those workers had died at 24 plants in 15 states, Investigate West said.