The Lily via Washington Post – “The grocery store is not a fun place to be right now. Inside, you’ll likely find long lines, horrendously overworked employees, and frenzied shoppers who may or may not have washed their hands. And if you came in looking for canned beans, well, there probably are none. As coronavirus spreads across the country, Americans are #panicbuying. First it was the hand sanitizer, then toilet paper, then the components to make hand sanitizer yourself. Last week, people started stockpiling food. Lines snaked around the perimeter of Cotsco and Kroger, as customers left with carts full of pasta, frozen vegetables, flour and Spam…

There is not a food shortage in America. The problem is that everyone anticipates a food shortage, says Goker Aydin, a professor of operations management at the John Hopkins Carey Business School — and that anticipation messes with supply chains. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle, he says: People see empty shelves, freak out, and feel like they need to buy more, which means more empty shelves. Sooner or later, you’re probably going to have to brave the grocery store. To make that experience as pain-free as possible, I asked food and grocery experts for their best advice. It’s easy to get caught up in the panic, they say, emerging with large quantities of food that really isn’t that useful – In the age of coronavirus, here’s how to do the grocery store right…”