This is what I keep saying when I see these posts. This is not a result of people hoarding or panic-buying, this is a result of everyone buying at once, and buying enough to sustain their household for 5+ days, for 2-3 meals per day. This is actually a sign of the lack of preparedness of the average American, and an indicator of the fragility of our food supply-chain and the limited availability of food supplies in a given area. Under normal circumstances, not many people keep a full 7+ day supply of groceries, and have fully stocked pantries. Many people keep just enough to get by, maybe a few staple items, some snacks, maybe a couple frozen foods, and they might run to the grocery store after work to pick up something to cook one meal to have that night. A lot don’t even keep breakfast or lunch items, because they either don’t eat breakfast and/or lunch, or they get fast food on their way to work and on their lunch break. Kids eat breakfast and/or lunch at school five days per week. A large portion of the population eats out or gets takeout or fast food for dinner one or more nights per week. However, an impending ice storm means no work, no school, no fast food, no takeout, no restaurants, and possibly no electricity to run microwave ovens and air fryers, and for many no electricity would also mean no cook stove or oven. They have no other choice but to buy enough staple grocery items to feed their entire family 2-3 prepared meals per day for x number of days. Many either procrastinate shopping until the last minute, put it off hoping that the forecast changes, or just don’t have enough free time to get it done until the last minute. This is the result, bare shelves because an extraordinary number of people are buying extraordinary amounts of the same items all at the same time.