On Friday, a new stay-at-home order was passed in the Bay Area that will be implemented from Monday. This new order will have an impact on grocery store shopping.

 Counties including San Francisco, Marin, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa will enforce the orders from Monday while the rest of the Bay Area will implement it by mid-December.

 As per the order grocery stores have to reduce capacity from 50% to 20%. Eating and drinking will not be allowed in stores. Seniors and others who are vulnerable will get special times to shop. Many stores had allocated special hours before this order was passed.

 Phil Lampert, a food industry expert and editor of Supermarket Guru feels that this order will lead to panic buying.

 “There’s no question that we’ll see panic buying again,” Lampert said. “But this time it won’t be mostly because of people flocking to stores. We may see hoarding through online orders which contribute to empty store shelves.”

 Berkeley’s Bowl in the East Bay, Rainbow Grocery and Bi-Rite in San Francisco, and Piedmont Grocery in Oakland had already capped customers from 25% to 20% from the past few months for extra safety. They also say that they have stocked many essential items in large quantities to prevent or decrease hoarding.

 Costco and Safeway have not as yet responded to queries about these new orders.

 Source SF Chronicle