Sara Guglielmetti Protests by truck drivers in the South continue , resulting in several empty shelves in supermarkets, worrying Italian families—a situation reminiscent of the Covid era.
Empty supermarkets, panic growing among Italian families: the situation
While we wait to see what will happen today, when a Council of Ministers meeting is scheduled to approve a decree with a package of measures to help the road haulage and agriculture sectors, the situation in the South is increasingly difficult, with many families worried.
The protests are slowing down deliveries, resulting in many empty supermarket shelves . The situation is particularly dire in Campania, Puglia, Calabria, and Sicily. In Naples, Confesercenti Campania reported shelves only half-stocked. However, in several stores in the Campania capital and the province, the rush to buy supplies has completed the emptying of shelves, so much so that many, including trade associations, have explicitly urged people not to stock up on products.
Among the products that are missing or in short supply are eggs, meat, and vegetables. In Termoli, supermarket shelves are partially empty due to the lack of food supplies, especially fruit, vegetables, and even packaged products.
Like in 2020 with Covid, empty shelves and families in panic: what's really happening in supermarkets?
Fresh produce sections are lacking almost everywhere, with, as mentioned, the most difficult situation in the South. Families are becoming increasingly concerned , especially rushing to stock up, despite the warning not to hoard products. From what we understand, pasta is the main source of supply for families, despite the fact that there are no significant supply problems for shelf-stable products and canned goods. The photos of empty shelves and the families' concerns are reminiscent of what happened in 2020, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic. The rush to buy and, in some cases, the rush to buy what's left in supermarkets is an impulsive behavior in which people buy essential goods out of fear of an impending shortage or crisis , thus hoarding products. These are the words of Vincenzo Barretta, psychiatrist and scientific director of the Noesis Center in Naples: " A stopped truck empties the warehouse, it's true, but the shelf is emptied by a photograph of an empty shelf. It may seem like a play on words, but in reality, all it takes is an image shared in the apartment building's chat room for thousands of people to decide to buy for three weeks at a time, at which point the feared shortage becomes real and the emergency escalates. In scientific literature, the phenomenon has a name— panic buying— and has been studied especially during health emergencies. A review published in 2020 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health by researchers at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore traces it to four families of causes: the perception of threat and scarcity, fear of the unknown, the need to reduce anxiety by regaining control of the situation, and the influence of one's social network. In recent days, we've seen them all acting together, on the same streets. "