Coronavirus Hoarding - cat version

syzygycat

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As the dimmer member of out society has decided to prep for the corona virus by buying 100's-1000's of rolls of toilet paper for some reason. It looks like cat owner are doing the same at least 3 out of 4 brands of litter are out of stock, I opted to buy a box of a different version of my usual brand, but even that sold out before i got to check out. I got a box from amazon at an inflated price. $24 instead of $17. last week the dry food I buy jumped from $26 to $34.

I think when the panic ends, Our pet products will be more expensive forever.
 

vyger

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As the dimmer member of out society has decided to prep for the corona virus by buying 100's-1000's of rolls of toilet paper for some reason. It looks like cat owner are doing the same at least 3 out of 4 brands of litter are out of stock, I opted to buy a box of a different version of my usual brand, but even that sold out before i got to check out. I got a box from amazon at an inflated price. $24 instead of $17. last week the dry food I buy jumped from $26 to $34.

I think when the panic ends, Our pet products will be more expensive forever.
That is kind of the crazy thing that nobody gets, there is no real shortage. It is a supply line glitch in that the supply pipeline was not meant to handle the excessive volume. So there are plenty of stocks of stuff, it just takes time to move it to retail locations. Once all these crazy people have closets full of TP and the stores fill back up they will discover that they have several years worth of horded away stuff and thus do not need anymore for some time. SO the stuff then sitting on store shelves will go unsold and in order to move the stock they will drop the prices perhaps drastically. What happens then is the horders will be furious because they will finally realize that they have thrown all their money away and turned their house into a warehouse and lost a lot of respect from others on top of it all. Paper of all kinds is made from trees and there is not a shortage of trees. SO the raw materials are available in abundance, especially since the demand for paper has fallen. The amount of newspaper pages printed has declined a lot. SO there is not a shortage of paper but rather a plentiful supply. People are just being silly and not understanding the situation. The reason why gas prices are falling is that there is a glut not a shortage. The same will be true of all the easily replenished perishables. Prices will be falling in an attempt to get people to buy again because there are no shortages.
 

Jem

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Prices for things are still at the same amounts here too. Believe it or not, many things are going on sale.
Thankfully, I bought a huge bag of litter a couple of weeks ago, and just opened it at the end of last week. I've got lots to last me a while. I'll admit though that I did stock up a bit more than usual on cat food. I ordered 2 bags of dry instead of one, they just arrived 2 days ago. And low and behold one of the wet foods I get was on sale so a bought a couple extra 12 packs. The extra only lasts an additional 2 weeks or so, I don't think I would consider that hoarding...it's not like I bought months worth...
 

KittyFriday

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Not to mention that, while toilet paper is a very nice thing to have and I absolutely do use it, it is not a life necessity. You will not die if you run out of toilet paper. I bought myself one pack of nine rolls and if I run out and can't get more, so be it. That will be months for now and I'll be fine regardless.

I bought one 40 lb box of cat litter and a 30 lb bag of dry food - a new kind that Friday isn't thrilled about but he's eating it haha. I already have a pretty good stock of wet food and he doesn't love wet food so really only eats about 1/4 to 1/3 of a can at a time.

I assume things are the same price here; I haven't been brave enough to venture out to any store.
 

catapault

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As I mentioned in a different thread yesterday I called Chewy's to order kitty litter. First I was on hold for more than 30 minutes. When there was an answer it turned out that the Tidy Cat Instant Action was completely sold out - no 35 pound pails (what I usually get), no 40 pound boxes, no 20 pound jugs. They did have Tidy Cat Continuous Clumping. I ordered three 35 pound pails and she waived the shipping fee (it was under their free shipping total.) Rather than the 1 to 2 day expected arrival it will be 5 to 8 days before it gets here.

While I was on hold I looked at Fancy Feast pate classic turkey and giblets, also tender beef feast. There's a 30% discount. However, since the price is bumped up to just over $17 / case the discount just brings it back to what it was before. Fortunately I had bought some before the craziness started so the boys have food for about a month. And litter for about 2 months.
 

vyger

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I just got an email from Tractor Supply you can read the notice here:
Hope the link works OK. Anyway they are increasing their store inventories of pet foods and such and you can call in or better order online and they will have the order ready so you can just pick it up. No shortages here.
 

Silver Crazy

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I couldn't get my usual cat litter from my local store, asked one of the staff when some is coming in and he said they are saving the freight space on the delivery trucks for human stuff, pet food and litter are low priority. There were some bags of clumping clay litter left on the shelves and took some of that, found out why that brand wasn't being bought, took me near on an hour to unglue the clay from the litter tray, terrible stuff.
 

Texaskitty

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The other day I went online to Chewy to place my usual order for kitty food and I got a response back that it would be 5 to 8 days to delivery. Normally it's 2 days. I didn't know if my kitty food inventory would last that long so I went on Walmart site and ordered some there also. It got here in 2 days.
 

vyger

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I have had a Sam's club membership for a long time. There are only 3 of their stores in all of Montana so it's a bit of a drive to get there. But they have had a really good online service and if you get their better membership you get free shipping. I just checked and the store I would get litter from is out of stock but it is available online.
SO they have limited it to 2 but the minimum purchase is 2. So that is two 42 lb tubs shipped for free for only 20 bucks. It is OK litter, I have gone through a lot of it. The Arm and Hammer stuff is a little better but a 40 box of that runs around 15 to 17 bucks so it's almost twice the price.
Not everything in the store is available online and some things that can freeze I don't order in the winter just to be safe but overall the membership cost has been covered several times over for me. Also you get to add an extra person onto the membership for free so my son has a card also and it cost him nothing.
And their deals on tires and car batteries are really good also.
 

gilmargl

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Here in Germany, we have now been limited to the number of packets of noodles, flour, rice, sugar, toilet rolls, etc. one person is allowed to buy from any one store at a time. I'm not interested in hoarding stuff so didn't take much notice. Today I went shopping and found many shelves were empty so I had to drive to a second store.

What a surprise, the wet cat food which I buy for my 4 cats, was being sold at a greatly reduced price! Without thinking I searched for the flavour my cats eat, and piled 5 packs of 12 85g tins into my trolley. When I came to pay, the cashier called the manager over. Everyone was watching and I suddenly felt as though I'd been caught trying to get away with 5 packets of 10 toilet rolls!

My daughter hissed "I can't take YOU anywhere!" But, it seems that catfood is not one of the items that people in Germany hoard, even when its going cheap. I was allowed to pay for my purchases.

I haven't noticed that there is any shortage of cat litter here, but who knows what may happen.
 

susanm9006

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Plenty of Fancy Feast at the grocery store day before yesterday. It isn’t my first choice in cat food but inexpensive and a good backup if I run low on Crave. I had two jugs of litter which is what I usually have in hand but found a third in the garage I had forgotten to bring in. So that will last a good while.
 

Graceful-Lily

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Prices for things are still at the same amounts here too. Believe it or not, many things are going on sale.
Thankfully, I bought a huge bag of litter a couple of weeks ago, and just opened it at the end of last week. I've got lots to last me a while. I'll admit though that I did stock up a bit more than usual on cat food. I ordered 2 bags of dry instead of one, they just arrived 2 days ago. And low and behold one of the wet foods I get was on sale so a bought a couple extra 12 packs. The extra only lasts an additional 2 weeks or so, I don't think I would consider that hoarding...it's not like I bought months worth...
I went into a Canadian Tire near me and they moved all the cleaning stuff to the front of the store and everything is on sale. Clorox wipes, dish soap, paper towels, disinfectant sprays, etc.
 

Twylasmom

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According to the cashier, a customer went into our local Petsmart and bought almost $1000 worth of Fancy Feast, leaving none for the rest of us. I was able to get about a dozen cans of the three varieties of pate that my cats like at Pet Supplies Plus.

I was also able to get cases of 2 of the 3 today from 1800Petmeds so if anyone is looking you could try there. Price is high, but it gets down to a regular price if you use the discount code. They were out of stock on the chicken pate, but had things in stock that Chewy didn't.
 
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syzygycat

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According to the cashier, a customer went into our local Petsmart and bought almost $1000 worth of Fancy Feast, leaving none for the rest of us. I was able to get about a dozen cans of the three varieties of pate that my cats like at Pet Supplies Plus.
Our Pet Supplies Plus started curbside pickup, you can shop without breaking the social distancing rule or waiting days for a delivery... which is nice.
 
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syzygycat

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This was one of the price hikes I was referring to. 37% price hike in 2 weeks. Maybe its a coincidence, but I bought bag anyway.
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kittyluv387

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Geez just checked chewy again. What a change after last week. The Frisco unscented litters that I buy are not in stock anymore. I have a couple months worth so it's fine but I wonder what my stepmom with 7 indoor cats is going to do...
 
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syzygycat

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Geez just checked chewy again. What a change after last week. The Frisco unscented litters that I buy are not in stock anymore. I have a couple months worth so it's fine but I wonder what my stepmom with 7 indoor cats is going to do...
i looked it up just in case society falls, many indoor cats can udjust to garden soil, the dryer the better.
 
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