Supermarket staff on: how do you recognize a hoarder?
If there is a group besides healthcare workers that deserves a round of applause, it is supermarket employees. Man, they have been through a lot lately. Fun stuff and less fun stuff. We were curious about their stories, so we asked them a few questions. This time: how do you recognize a hoarder?
It wasn’t me
“Everyone I have a chat with says they find the hoarding behavior bizarre. They especially want to make it very clear that they are not hoarding. But in the meantime, I am now restocking toilet paper three times a day instead of the usual two or three times a week.”
Ok, boomer
“People who complain that they are not allowed to take more than one of a particular product. Show understanding and accept it for what it is, I think. Remarkably many people between 50 and 70 were hoarding, by the way, but that may just have been specific to my supermarket, of course.”
Discounts are life
“Hoarders buy everything with a discount sticker on it. It could just be the last deal you get your hands on. We are still Dutch, after all.”
More, more, more
“An overfilled cart with the same products, always asking whether we still have certain products (usually toilet paper or bake-off bread rolls) and whether we can go and look for them. But I have to say: at the moment, I consider almost every customer a hoarder.”
Just in case
“I thought the hoarding would ease off, but it just keeps going. I think everyone who missed out the first time is now taking a few extras anyway. They do not intend to hoard, but they are doing it unconsciously all the same.”
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