- [Reporter] Panic buying has been on the rise
amid the global spread of the new coronavirus.
- [Reporter two] Store shelves nationwide are dwindling
or totally empty.
- [Timothy] Panic is never a good response
to pretty much any problem.
- Well this is just unnecessary.
(rain drizzles)
- Go on Forbes.com Forbes magazine.
They're doing a big story about my pizza franchise, Slices.
- Oh so is your pizza chain still operating
despite all this?
- Look, unless they shut us down, we will be serving pizza,
that's for sure.
- Hi, there, I'm Aria, and like many of you out there,
I am not a fan of the idea of being infected
by the Corona Virus but as the World Health Organization
officially declares the Corona Virus outbreak as a pandemic
there's obviously a lot of information and misinformation
going around, so I want to get to the bottom
of all this for those of us out there who just want
to hunker on down safely.
- The panic outside is real.
- We all gonna die.
(laughs) stop, okay okay, you're not all gonna die.
- I'm not really scared of Corona virus.
- I think the panic is too much.
- I have no idea if the panic is justified at all.
- You know we gotta be mindful of what's going on
but obviously you don't want to panic anyone.
- The craziest thing is that all the numbers that we hear
are who knows, what of it is real
and what of it is bullshit.
- Aria, I've never witnessed anything like this
in my lifetime.
You know I'm 68 years old.
- I'm not too worried, what I heard is that black people
are immune so I'm like, I'm part black
so I should be fine, but 52% of me is worried.
(laughs)
- It's natural of course that during a time like this
for panic to set in but at the same time,
unnecessary panic can make things a lot worse
than they actually are.
So Jack and I are gonna set out today to make ourselves
a little home essentials kit, based on suggestions
by well vetted sources as well as to see
how things are like out there in the wild.
There's a lot of information and misinformation
in regards to what one should actually
be stocking up with at home.
Regular household detergent or disinfectants
are good to have in such a kit as well as hand sanitizer
which has at least 60% alcohol.
And so I think those are the three primary things
we're going to try and find today
along with any other goods.
- My home kit would be a bottle of tequila.
- I think was a little bit of CBD.
- Maybe some sanitary napkins for the girls.
But that's about it.
- [Aria] The girls.
- Yes, pads.
They're called sanitary napkins.
- [Aria] Oh for periods.
- Yes for period blood, yes.
- [Aria] Ah, yes yes yes yes yes.
That comes out of you.
- Yes.
- I just hope the Call of Duty servers stay live.
- I also want to take a moment to clarify
the difference between being self quarantined
or practicing social distancing.
Social distancing is what's been practiced
by a lot of us that are being told to either work
or study from home but, someone who's been told
by medical authorities for any number of reasons
to stay has been self quarantined.
But I think what's happening is that some people
get very panicky about this idea of working
or staying from home and they feel like
they need to stock up on everything.
- Customers are cleaning out store shelves.
- [Reporter] Items like toilet roll, hand sanitizer
and pasta are now increasingly hard to come by.
- You don't have to buy so much, take it easy, just relax.
- It's absolutely ridiculous that so many people
are running out right now to buy so much extra stuff.
- People are hoarding toilet paper.
- Stop going crazy and buying a hole bunch of toilet paper.
You could always wash that ass in the shower.
- I've even heard some stories of like
having to limit how many people are getting
because I'm sure people are like getting, they're like,
oh yeah, I need 20 (beeps) hand sanitizers bottles,
because I'm gonna be locked in my house for three months.
When like that's not the case.
- We're pulling up into the first store.
- I think a office supply store might be a good bet
for hand sanitizer because they have it for like school kids
and I feel like people are going
to Target and Walmart for this,
they're not thinking about office supplies.
- [Aria] Oh see, this was Jacks idea,
so let's see what they got.
- [Jack] Yeah.
Here is it, it's here it's here.
- [Aria] All the hand sanitizer's out.
Oh boy.
All the mega rolls.
- [Jack] Wild.
- All right, well, on to the next store.
Well we had no luck there.
- Nope.
- Now we're at a pharmacy.
Alright.
Oh well, it's.
No luck here either.
On to the next.
I posted a story earlier asking people for any tips
of where we could potentially get some disinfectant
or hand sanitizer, department store,
we'll check at the department store,
Walgreens, we'll check a pharmacy,
the dark web, funny.
Staples, Office Depot, a lot of different suggestions.
We're just gonna keep trying around LA I guess.
We're at another pharmacy, still no luck.
All disinfectants and hand sanitizers are sold out,
we're seeing a lot of people walk out
with lots of toilet paper and paper towels.
Every supermarket right now wants to get everything sold out
you know, the thing is, this section here,
it's not even disinfectants or hand sanitizers
this is just paper towels, toilet paper
that people just seem to be stocking up in bulk
as if we're coming up on an apocalypse or something.
- [Timothy] Panic is never a good response
to pretty much anything problem.
So if you're walking through the bush in the Serengeti
and you come across a lion and you panic and run
that's probably the wrong response, right?
Become informed and get it from a credible source
rather than from social media or your friends.
Or your brother's mother's cousin's doctor kinda thing.
- We're here at the station pharmacy, we did find
this kind of wet tissue, which I think is supposed
to be kind of like a disinfectant but I don't think
this actually would be good because it's not on a list
approved by the EPA.
We put a link down in the description below
of a list of disinfectants approved by the EPA
that you can buy if you're able to find them.
And out front they have a sign that says
they're sold out of face masks
which they actually shouldn't be to begin with
because we should not be buying out face masks.
- [Timothy] There is no benefit to walking around
with a face mask on, it will not help you at all.
As the public goes out and buys up all these face masks
what it means is that when doctors and nurses
need face masks, to take care of sick people
they won't have them available.
So that's a direct impact where hoarding is going to make it
more likely that the virus spreads.
- Yeah, people are panicking.
- Jesus, good god.
And this isn't even disinfectants or hand sanitizers,
this is people buying out paper towels,
paper plates, and napkins and facial tissues.
Also on another note, this is disgusting, don't litter.
Unlike national disasters where people will stock pile food
there is no anticipation of any kind of shut down,
of electricity, food or water, so there's no need
to stock and hoard so much product all at once.
- Milk doesn't even last long what are they,
just gonna chug these gallons?
- I guess people want every type of pasta but rotini.
Even when it comes to food
there's no need to just focus on buying canned goods
because since utilities aren't expected to be interrupted,
we can still buy fresh or frozen food,
you can meal prep food,
delivery may still be an option for you.
So there's no need to go out and stock up
a huge amount of food as if you're going to be going
to a bomb shelter anytime soon.
- [Timothy] Rather than hoarding and trying to figure out,
okay, how do I protect myself, if we all realize
we're in this together and we help each other out.
We have the best chance of getting through this
with the minimum amount of disruption.
- Well we just spent the whole day driving around
in LA traffic and we didn't get our hands
on any type of disinfectant, detergent, of hand sanitzers.
But I think one of the biggest take aways from this day
is actually just seeing in person how these stores
are just selling out of goods that may not necessarily
even need to be, there's a big different
between being cautious and preparing accordingly
as well as just panicking and hoarding.
I think the only thing you need to focus on
is having the essentials at home.
Just don't overdo it.
You just buy what you need because hoarding really can
put other people at risk.
And with a video like this about a global issue
like we're dealing with, information will be changing
and coming at us rapidly over the course
of the next few days, weeks and months,
so all we can do now is just take things day by day.
Try not to lose our heads and just support each other
through these times.
- [Timothy] Look out for each other,
we're all in this together and if we take care
of each other rather than focusing on
just protecting ourselves we'll come through this
in the best possible way.
(soft music)
- Slices pizza, I'm telling you right now,
I'm from New York I know good pizza,
one of the best pizzas you'll ever taste,
take it from me, mob guys know food, I'm telling ya.
And I know good pizza.
Slices USA, that's the name.